Here's a quick implementation off the top of my head: 

my @xx = ( 'dfb|cy|nmju', 'dfb|my|jhiho', 'aaa|zz|gggg' );
my @sorted_xx = sort sorter @xx;

print Dumper \@xx;
print Dumper \@sorted_xx;

sub sorter {
    my @arr_a = split /\|/, $a;
    my @arr_b = split /\|/, $b;
    while ( @arr_a ) {
        my $sa = shift @arr_a;
        my $sb = shift @arr_b;
        my $comparison = ( $sa cmp $sb );
        return $comparison if $comparison;
    }
    return 0;
}
__END__
$VAR1 = [ 
          'dfb|cy|nmju',
          'dfb|my|jhiho',
          'aaa|zz|gggg'
        ];
$VAR1 = [ 
          'aaa|zz|gggg',
          'dfb|cy|nmju',
          'dfb|my|jhiho'
        ];

[download]

I note that in the example strings you provide, the field delimiters are always in the same place (i.e., the fields are fixed length). If that's the case, you should be able to compare them directly without split, etc.

In reply to Re: sort array by part of the string by kyle
in thread sort array by part of the string by vitaly

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