If the file is small enough, just slurp it in and compare the first column by munging the date into ISO format 

open( my $fh, '<', $your_file ) or die "ack: $!";

my @data =
  map  { $_->[0] }
  sort { $a->[1] <=> $b->[1] }
  map  {
    my($m,$d,$y) = /^(\d+)-(\d+)-(\d+)/;
    [ $_, sprintf "20%d%02d%02d", $y, $m, $d ]
  } <$fh>;

print @data;

__output__

1-3-03 sdddddd
1-3-03 kkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
1-22-03 somedata_somedata
1-22-03 sssssssssssss
1-22-03 eeeeeeeeeee
1-23-03 wwwwwwwwwww
2-3-03 aaaaaaaaaaaa
2-3-03 hhhhhhhhh
2-3-03 ddddddddddddd
2-3-03 llllllllllllllll

[download]
The above just applies the ever-handy Schwartzian transform to the first column and sorts the data by date.
HTH

_________
broquaint

In reply to Re: File - sort by date (hash, array?) by broquaint
in thread File - sort by date (hash, array?) by Anonymous Monk

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