Has the first number always the same length?

Length of a numeric field is not an issue. Using unix (or gnu) sort, the OP problem would be a simple command line: 

sort -k 1n -k 2n -k 10  big.file > sorted.big.file

[download]
That's equivalent to doing something like this in perl (but the perl version might take a lot longer, esp. if the file, stored in perl as an AoA, is bigger than available RAM): 
perl -lane 'push @f,[@F]; END{
 print join(" ",@$_)
  for (sort{$$a[0]<=>$$b[0] ||
            $$a[1]<=>$$b[1] ||
            $$a[9] cmp $$b[9]} @f)}' big.file > sorted.big.file

[download]

In reply to Re^2: sorting a file - multilevel by graff
in thread sorting a file - multilevel by ini2005

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