my $sample= [ [5,7,2], [9,4,8], [1,6,3] ];
my @widths= map 0+@$_, @$sample;
my @sort= sort map @$_, @$sample;
$sample= [ map { [ splice @sort, 0, $_ ] } @widths ];

[download]

But if you really wanted to not pull it apart to sort it: 

use mapcar;
my $sample= [ [5,7,2], [9,4,8], [1,6,3] ];
my @refs= sort {$$a cmp $$b} map \(@$_), @$sample;
mapcar {
    my( $ref, $val )= @_;
    $$ref= $val;
} \@refs, [ map $$_, @refs ];

[download]

Which requires that you grab my mapcar.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")

In reply to (tye)Re: Sorting multi dimensional arrays by tye
in thread Sorting multi dimensional arrays by Anonymous Monk

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