beth, countzero, wol thanks for your help/encouragement.

before i go much further, i should post the actual working code i currently have which has been modified to fit the input/output scenario above.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

use Text::CSV_XS;
my $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new();

my $file = '';
if (defined $ARGV[0]) {
    $file = $ARGV[0];
}

open(my $data, '<', $file) or die "Could not open '$file'\n";
while (my $line = <$data>) {
    if ($csv->parse($line)) {
        my @columns = $csv->fields();

        ## set vars
        my $orderNumber = $columns[0];
        my $name = $columns[1];
        my $itemId = $columns[2];
        my $itemDesc = $columns[3];
        my $price = $columns[4];

        open (OUTFILE, "> output/$orderNumber.xml") or die $! . " can'
+t open the file\n";
#print OUTFILE <<XML;
            print OUTFILE "<order>\n";
            print OUTFILE  "  <order_id>$orderNumber</order_id>\n";
            print OUTFILE  "  <name>$name</name>\n";
            print OUTFILE  "  <item>\n";
            print OUTFILE  "    <item_id>$itemId</item_id>\n";
            print OUTFILE  "    <item_desc>$itemDesc</item_desc>\n";
            print OUTFILE  "    <price>$price</price>\n";
            print OUTFILE  "  </item>\n";
            print OUTFILE  "</order>\n";

#XML
    close (OUTFILE);
    } 
    else {
        warn "Line could not be parsed:\n";
    }
}
[download]

i've read the sort documentation but i'm still having trouble wrapping my brain around how to actually execute it with the Text::CSV module (forgive me, i realize this is a pretty basic concept). the File::Sort module seems interesting, though, i feel i should be able to solve this natively in PERL (also encountering some strange issues when trying to run this module). essentially, how do i get at the file array and then look inside it to the first column's value on each row?

it would appear that my input file is being defined in scalar context where it should be an array. am i getting warmer? ;)

thanks again