This should do it:

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;


my @things_to_sort = (
                   { author => 'bart', title => 'skateboarding' },
                   { author => 'lisa', title => 'postmodernism' },
                   { author => 'marge', title => 'hairstyles' },
                   { author => 'lisa', title => 'THIS BOOK FIRST' },
                   { author => 'homer', title => 'donuts' },
                   { author => 'bart', title => 'coolness' }
                  );



my @sorted = sort {
         $a->{title}  eq  "THIS BOOK FIRST" && -1
     or  $b->{title}  eq  "THIS BOOK FIRST" &&  1 
     or  $a->{author} cmp $b->{author}
     or  $a->{title}  cmp $b->{title}
} @things_to_sort;

print Dumper \@sorted;

[download]

This uses logical short-circuiting to "fall through" until one of the comparisons produces a result. First, $a is tested to see if it has the key phrase. If not, then $b is tested. If not, then $a and $b are compared to see if there is inequality in author names. If so, great, but if not, fall through to the title comparison.


Dave

In reply to Re: Twisted sort requirements by davido
in thread Twisted sort requirements by forrest

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