Hi Kutsu

I couldn't reply on your thread so I thought I would just add to this one. I can actually open the file, so that is not a problem. The problem is totally in my lack of understanding on how the process works and gettng a bit of information here and there. I am a visual basic programmer, so Perl is very new to me and doesn't always seem as logical.

For instance, these are the values that are at the top row of my tab delimited file (if you think of it as an Excel spreadsheet this is line one):

"Oper_Cd","Pick_Ref_Num","Part_Id","Lot Qty","Order Id", "Order Lineitem Id","Order Lineline Id","Sublot Num", "Comm Invoice Num","Oper In Dt","Cust Early Shp Dt", "Cust Late Shp Dt" ,"Current Date","Business Class Cd", "Action Expedite Flg","Required Ship Saleable", "Required Ship Inventory Transfer","Total Required Ships"

I want to sort the data on the file by "Cust Late Shp Dt" (Bold Highlight). Then I want to eliminate all rows of data where the the date is greater than today's date (such as tomorrow or the next day). In VB this is a very easy task, but this alludes me in Perl.

I have read the document on sorting, but to me it is not clear as to what is the proper code to use to sort by one segment of a header file. If someone could please explain this in plain english (I know, I am still learning the jargon of Perl) then I would be extremely grateful.

Portree