Re^2: Complex conditional sort

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. I tried most of your examples, although a couple didn't work as I desired (unless I implemented them incorrectly). I have used Limbic~Region's second example, its tidy and functions well:

foreach my $col (
        sort {
            my $aa = $products{$a}{Q} > 0 ? "A$a" : "B$a";
            my $bb = $products{$b}{Q} > 0 ? "A$b" : "B$b";
            ($aa <=> $bb || $aa cmp $bb)
        }
        keys %products
) {
[download]

Thanks again, Chris

Comment on Re^2: Complex conditional sort Download Code

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Re^3: Complex conditional sort by ikegami (Patriarch) on Mar 09, 2011 at 01:36 UTC
Why did you reintroduce `($aa <=> $bb \|\| $aa cmp $bb)`? First, it goes against what you said ("each group must then be sorted in alphabetical order"). Secondly, it implies that you have colour names that start with numbers, and that doesn't make much sense. Maybe you are doing a cheap "natural sort", but you'd would at least need a `no warnings;` to accompany it. Update: Expanded to clarify.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Complex conditional sort by Anonymous Monk on Mar 09, 2011 at 03:57 UTC
The code is part of a larger eCommerce CGI script. While its live, warnings are turned off, therefore it wasn't an issue even if its bad practice. The sort must be able to handle numbers alone, or letters alone, or a combination of both (which I didn't explain properly). That was just my natural attempt to do that. I haven't tried yet, but i'm assuming cmp alone might be able to handle it. Chris	[reply]
Re^5: Complex conditional sort by ikegami (Patriarch) on Mar 09, 2011 at 07:06 UTC
If by combination of both, you mean stuff like "abc5def", it's currently being sorted to come after "abc10def".	[reply]
Re^6: Complex conditional sort by Zhris (Initiate) on Mar 09, 2011 at 20:52 UTC