I presume you meant

print sort { (split ":", $a)[0] <=> (split ":", $b)[0] } @table;

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sort {...} @table will sort the contents of the array @table according to the contents of {...}

sort works by comparing pairs of elements, calling them $a and $b within the {...}.

split ":", $a will split $a into a list using ":" as the separator

(...)[0] will return the first element of that list

So, given input like:

111:A:B;C
2:D:E:F

[download]

This will sort by looking at the first field only, namely "111" & "2", treating them as numbers because of the use of <=>.

update: Oops, I forgot to mention <=>, the numeric comparison operator, usually called the spaceship operator.

In reply to Re: sorting an array with mixed elements... by FunkyMonk
in thread sorting an array with mixed elements... by cgmd

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