sub sort_maker {
  my @subs = @_;
  sub {
    foreach my $sub (@subs) {
      my $result = $sub->(); # you use $a and $b in your littlesubs - 
+no need to pass in globals.
      return $result if $result;
    }
  }
}

my $sorter = sort_maker(
        sub { lc($data{$a}[0]) cmp lc($data{$b}[0]) },
        sub { lc($data{$a}[1]) cmp lc($data{$b}[1]) },
     );
@results = sort $mysortref (keys %data);

[download]

It's left as an excersise to the reader on how to convert your query language into perl sort functions. Translation: I'd help further, but I don't know how you know what order to sort in.

In reply to Re^3: Building a sorting subroutine on the fly by Tanktalus
in thread Building a sorting subroutine on the fly by jkeenan1

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