Generally, you can do this with multi-level sorts. A naive implementation might look like this: 
# load data into a list of hash-refs
my @data = (
  { Subject => 'ID12', Query => 'KBrH', start => 22400316, ... },
  ...
);

my @sorted = sort {
  $a->{Subject} cmp $b->{Subject} or $a->{start} <=> $b->{start}
} @data;

[download]
I've written a CPAN module to make this kind of thing trivial: Data::Sorting.

If you've loaded your data into a list of hash-refs: 

use Data::Sorting 'sort_array';
sort_array( @data, 'Subject', 'start' );

[download]

Alternately, if you've loaded your data into an array of arrays like this: 

my $data = [
  [ 'ID12', 'KBrH', '2e-26', 22400316, ... ],
  ...
];

use Data::Sorting 'sort_arrayref';
sort_arrayref( $data, 0, 3 );

[download]

There are other functions that return a sorted copy of the array, if you don't want to change the order of the original. 

use Data::Sorting 'sorted_array';
my @sorted = sorted_array( @data, 'Subject', 'start' );

[download]

It'll run slower than a well-written inline sort statement, but it does some tricks under the covers to keep the performance up to acceptable levels (automatically picking a Schwartizian Transform or Guttman-Rossler strategy based on the arguments received), and you only need to write one line of code rather than a confusing block expression.

In reply to Re: Sorting complex records by simonm
in thread Sorting complex records by Anonymous Monk

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