This is Roy Johnson's code, but changed a bit: 

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my @file;
while(<DATA>){
    chomp;
    push @file,$_;
}

&getClients;
#----------------------

sub getClients{
    my @tuples = map {[split /\s+/, $_]} grep { !/^(?:#|$)/ } @file;
    foreach(sort {$a->[1] cmp $b->[1]} @tuples){
        my ($cltnbr, $cltname, $clNum) = @$_;
        print "<a href='#' title='$cltnbr' name='$cltname $clNum' oncl
+ick='fillText(this);'>$cltname $clNum</a><br />";
        print qq|\n|;
    }
}

1;

__DATA__
001 client 1
002 client 2
003 client 3

[download]

Which produces: 

<a href='#' title='001' name='client 1' onclick='fillText(this);'>clie
+nt 1</a><br />
<a href='#' title='002' name='client 2' onclick='fillText(this);'>clie
+nt 2</a><br />
<a href='#' title='003' name='client 3' onclick='fillText(this);'>clie
+nt 3</a><br />

[download]

Now, instead of using a global variable like the above you should pass it into the routine as a reference.

Celebrate Intellectual Diversity

In reply to Re: sorting a file by InfiniteSilence
in thread sorting a file by mooker

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