Yes, $jobs{$a}{start_date}<=>$jobs{$b}{start_date} is what I wanted. I woke up this morning, and that was in my head. I feel a little silly.

As for the END logic: Any job that doesn't have an /END/ has not been dealt with (no quota has been subtracted), So I want to keep non-/END/ jobs to be dealt with. I think I ought to just flag the /END/ers as dealt with, and not delete them though.

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate someone pouring over my copious amounts of text to help out.

Louie