When you sort an array, you can provide a block of code which specifies how the items are compared. The items are handed to the block two by two as $a and $b. To compare numbers, use "<=>", and to compare strings use "cmp". The syntax basically looks like this:

@array = sort { $a <=> $b } @array;
[download]

So if the array was an array of hashes and you wanted to sort by the "time" fields, it would look a lot like this:

@array = sort { $a->{time} <=> $b->{time} } @array;
[download]

..or to sort in reverse order...

@array = sort { $b->{time} <=> $a->{time} } @array;
[download]

..or to sort as strings (non case-sensitive)...

@array = sort { uc $a->{time} cmp uc $b->{time} } @array;
[download]

Hopefully this will give you enough information to figure it out.

Hot Pastrami

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.