This sort takes a hash of hashes called %nodes (yes, this is something of an E2 project). Each element in %nodes is a hash - the key is the node's title, and its elements are attributes.

I'm sorting on the node's creation time, which is given in the form "YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS"

The subroutine splits the two dates/times into the appropriate particles, then converts that to seconds-since-the-epoch time and compares.

As you can see, it's pretty long. It works, and that's all that matters, but I'm trying to do some learning over here - I want to shrink it.

At boo_radley's encouragement, I submit the subroutine to the Monks. How small can you get it?
Thanks... 
if($sort_field eq 'createtime') {
    for $node (sort {
        ($date, $time) = split / /, $nodes{$a}{createtime};
        ($year, $month, $day) = split /-/, $date;
        ($hour, $min, $sec) = split /:/, $time;
        $create_timeA = timelocal($sec,$min,$hour,$day,$month,$year);
        ($date, $time) = split / /, $nodes{$b}{createtime};
        ($year, $month, $day) = split /-/, $date;
        ($hour, $min, $sec) = split /:/, $time;
        $create_timeB = timelocal($sec,$min,$hour,$day,$month,$year);
        if($sort_order eq 'ASC') {
            return $create_timeA <=> $create_timeB;
        } else {
            return $create_timeB <=> $create_timeA;
        }
    } keys %nodes) {
            print "$node: $nodes{$node}{$sort_field}\n";
    }
} else {
   whatever;
}

[download]
---
donfreenut

In reply to Shrink this sort subroutine by donfreenut

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