in reply to sorting/output

I found the code a bit confusing, but I think what is happenning is that you are creating an array that maps a distance from the centre to a record -- but you don't account for the possibility of two records with the same distance.

The approach you probably want to use is to create a reshref for each record, and then sort those by distance. i.e.

while (<LINE>) { @fields = split; my $record = { ra => ..., prob => ..., dist => ..., }; push @records, $record; } sub by_distance { $a->{dist} <=> $b->{dist} } @records = sort by_distance @records;

You can then iterate ocver the records, and print them.

--Dave
Opinions my own; statements of fact may be in error.