I need to be able to sort a hash by values, but i cannot inline the sort function, because it will not be specified until runtime. So i cant use the usual: 
foreach my $key ( sort { $hash{$a} cmp $hash{$b} } keys %hash ) {
    # do something useful
}

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sort of thing.

I will need to use a named sort function, specified at runtime, but something like this will not work: 

foreach my $key ( sort my_sorter keys %hash ) {
   # do something useful
}
...
...
sub my_sorter {
    return $hash{$a} cmp $hash{$b};
}

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Because %hash is not necessarily scoped in my_sorter()

In my situation, it will be nearly impossible to have the hash being sorted in the proper scope directly.

What i realy want to do is pass anonymous sort subroutines into the function that needs to sort the hash, but i just dont see how to make this work properly. The hash itself will always be out of scope.

Note that this is a simplification of the real problem, the sorting by values problem is only part of the situation, but its the only part thats giving me trouble.

So i guess the real issue is: How do i sort by values without an inlined sort?

Thanks much - beating my head

In reply to Sort by value - new twist by shemp

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