in reply to sorting arrays

On Unix a simple alternative to perl is to use the system's sort command: 

% sort -uk 1,1 datafile > sorted_datafile

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That will sort strictly (i.e. no duplicates) on the first field; the first instance encountered is the one kept. See man sort (or info sort if your system uses GNU's sort).

the lowliest monk

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Re^2: sorting arrays
by strictvars (Sexton) on Apr 12, 2005 at 20:39 UTC
    Hash slices would be ok too. 
    my %hash;
@hash(@array) = (@array);
@sorted = keys %hash;

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In Section Seekers of Perl Wisdom