here is how to do it using the famed schwarzian transform (ST). by 'it' i mean sort on various fields in your __DATA__. first, though, take your data and append it underneath the "__DATA__" tag. adjust $fieldtosort to taste.

my $fieldtosort = 9; # person, for now.

my @data = <DATA>; 
my @sorted = map { $_->[0] } 
sort sortf map { [$_, split /\|/ ] } @data; 
print @sorted; 

# sort by $fieldtosort
sub sortf {
$a->[$fieldtosort] cmp $b->[$fieldtosort]; 
} 

__DATA__ 
id|projname|status|submitdt|assign_dt|total|complete_dt|person|dept|cl
+osed_dt
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