No need to get real fancy here. 

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my @a = ("1-1-2", "6-1-2", "3-1-4", "1-1-1");

@a = sort{  my ($A_chapter,$A_sub_chapter,$A_verse) = split(/[-]/,$a);
            my ($B_chapter,$B_sub_chapter,$B_verse) = split(/[-]/,$b);
                       $A_chapter <=> $B_chapter
                                  or
                    $A_sub_chapter <=> $B_sub_chapter
                                  or
                          $A_verse <=> $B_verse
         }@a;
         
print "@a"; 

__END__
prints: 1-1-1 1-1-2 3-1-4 6-1-2

[download]
The "Schwartzian Transform" is far less important that it used to be due to recent(since ver 5.8) sorting performance improvements. In any event, this appears to be a "how to do it?" question rather than a "how to do it faster?" question.

updated with better variable names in the sort. Names and code formatting do matter.

Yet another comment: The idea behind the "Schwartzian Transform" is to calculate all this stuff like in the split's in one single pass thru the data and then use the resulting values for comparison in the sort. That idea being that we've saved all this calculation on a per pair comparison basis. The idea of the "Guttman-Rosler Transform" is to make a single string value that can be compared with a string comparison (cmp). I don't think that the OP needs either one.

If you have a choice in formatting data like the OP's case, one way is to choose to add leading zeroes so that the normal cmp sort order "works out", this is the "Guttman-Rosler Transform" without any transformation! ie. @array = sort @array; works.

If the set to be sorted is relatively small, the only thing that really matters is how clear the sort is. I think the above is very clear about what it does.

In reply to Re: Custom sort with string of numbers by Marshall
in thread Custom sort with string of numbers by linuxfan

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