I have a moderately complicated data structure I want to sort according to somewhat esoteric rules. This seems to be exactly what Data::Sorting was designed for. I am having trouble figuring out how to apply the module tp my specific problem, though. I have read the docs on CPAN several times, but I always end up mildly confused about exactly what to do.

The subroutine that needs the sorted data is passed a reference to a hash. The keys of the hash are arbitrary numbers, and the values are arrays that hold information about a particular person. More precisely, the hash has this structure:

{number_1 => [last_name1, first_name1, middle_name1, other_stuff1],
 number_2 => [last_name2, first_name2, middle_name2, other_stuff2],
  .
  .
  .
 number_N => [last_nameN, first_nameN, middle_nameN, other_stuffN],
}

[download]

I want to sort the keys (number_1 ... number_N) by the alphabetical ranking of the name in that key's value. As usual, the priority is last_name > first_name > middle_name. Nothingness should sort before everything else, and hyphens should sort before "A".

Since the previous paragraph ended up more confusing than I'd hoped, I have an example. Suppose I want to sort the keys of this hash:

(spaces added for clarity)

{1 => [Frog,      Fuzzy,   A, other_stuff],
 2 => [Frog,      Fuzzy,    , other_stuff],
 3 => [Toad,      Zola,    Q, other_stuff],
 4 => [Frogger,   Anthony, J, other_stuff],
 5 => [Frog-Toad, Berl,    G, other_stuff]}

[download]

The keys should end up in the order (2, 1, 5, 4, 3)

I would really like to get this working within a week or so. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

___________
-- Fuzzy Frog

P.S. I do not mean to imply that simonm's docs are in any way deficient. I'm sure the problem lies entirely with me.

-- FF

In reply to Data::Sorting by Fuzzy Frog

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