You're being unclear in what kind of data structure you are holding (try dumping it with Data::Dumper). However, I am guessing you have an array of arrayrefs.

The magic variables $a and $b in sort are aliases to the array's elements. Since the element is an arrayref, you need to dereference it. If you were to access the first column normally in your code, you'd say $array[$x]->[0]. Through the aliasing, $array[$x] is equal to $a or $b. Therefore, the correct syntax should be $a->[0]. So, 

sort { $b->[0] <=> $a->[0] } @array

[download]

might do the trick.

In reply to Re: sorting the column of array element by Anonymous Monk
in thread sorting the column of array element by anonym

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