Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Dear Monks, I can't seem to figure out how to sort on the 'priority' part of my HoH. Here's a short example of what I have tried:
#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my %tmp = ( 'hostX1-1-l.example.com' => { 'priority' => { 'IS-ABC' => '3', }, 'os' => { 'linux' => 'linux', }, 'pager' => { 'man-duty' => 'man-duty', }, }, 'hostC1-3-l.example.com' => { 'priority' => { 'IS-XYZ' => '3', }, 'os' => { 'linux' => 'linux', }, 'pager' => { 'man-duty' => 'man-duty', }, }, 'hostc1-3-l.example.com' => { 'priority' => { 'OS-XYZ' => '3', }, 'os' => { 'linux' => 'linux', }, 'pager' => { 'man-duty' => 'man-duty', }, }, 'hostC1-9-l.example.com' => { 'priority' => { 'XS-XYZ' => '3', }, 'os' => { 'linux' => 'linux', }, 'pager' => { 'man-duty' => 'man-duty', }, }, 'hostH1-2-l.example.com' => { 'priority' => { 'IS-XYZ' => '3', }, 'os' => { 'linux' => 'linux', }, 'pager' => { 'man-duty' => 'man-duty', }, }, 'hostQ1-3-l.example.com' => { 'priority' => { 'IS-ABC' => '3', }, 'os' => { 'linux' => 'linux', }, 'pager' => { 'man-duty' => 'man-duty', }, }, ); sub sortBySite { my $site_a = $tmp{$a}{'priority'}; my $site_b = $tmp{$b}{'priority'}; return $site_a <=> $site_b; } #foreach my $host ( sort { $tmp{$a}{'priority'} <=> $tmp{$b}{'priority +'} } sort keys %tmp ) { #foreach my $host ( sort keys %tmp ) { foreach my $host ( sort sortBySite keys %tmp ) { for my $site ( keys %{ $tmp{$host}{'priority'}} ) { print "$host->$site is $tmp{$host}{'priority'}{$site}\ +n"; } }
The output I get is this:
hostX1-1-l.example.com->IS-ABC is 3 hostC1-3-l.example.com->IS-XYZ is 3 hostc1-3-l.example.com->OS-XYZ is 3 hostC1-9-l.example.com->XS-XYZ is 3 hostH1-2-l.example.com->IS-XYZ is 3 hostQ1-3-l.example.com->IS-ABC is 3
What I am try to get is this:
hostQ1-3-l.example.com->IS-ABC is 3 hostX1-1-l.example.com->IS-ABC is 3 hostC1-3-l.example.com->IS-XYZ is 3 hostH1-2-l.example.com->IS-XYZ is 3 hostc1-3-l.example.com->OS-XYZ is 3 hostC1-9-l.example.com->XS-XYZ is 3
Thanks

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Sorting HoH on 2nd level key?
by pc88mxer (Vicar) on Jul 24, 2008 at 03:55 UTC
    Your priority values are hashes. So how do you want to compare {'IS-ABC' => '3'} with {'IS-XYZ' => '3'}? Do you compare IS-ABC with IS-XYZ alphabetically, and what if they are equal?

    From your desired output here's something that I think will work:

    sub sortBySite { my ($site_a) = keys %{$tmp{$a}{'priority'}}; my ($site_b) = keys %{$tmp{$b}{'priority'}}; return $site_a cmp $site_b; }

    Also, does your data really need to be stored as a HoH? Would this simpler structure work for you?

    'hostX1-1-l.example.com' => { priority => 'IS-ABC', priority_level => 3, os => 'linux', pager => 'man-duty', }
      Wow! Thanks, that does the trick. I agree with you completely about the structure of the has, but I don't have control over that. Also thanks for give me a increase appreciation for the keys command.