@ARGV = glob 'datafile*';

open my $OUTPUT, '>', 'output_file' or die "Cannot open 'output_file' 
+because: $!";

my %data;
while ( <> ) {
    next unless /^(.+) (\S+)$/;
    push @{ $data{ $1 } }, $2;
    }

for my $key ( sort keys %data ) {
    print join ' ', $key, @{ $data{ $key } }, scalar @{ $data{ $key } 
+}, "columns\n";
    }
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thank you. the code is working fine. could you please help me understand the code. i am a beginner in perl and had hard time understanding the hi-fi code. also could you please explain how sort is working in your code. what changes do i have to make to code to get all the data with out any sorting. thank you.

understanding the hi-fi code

What code are you calling the hi-fi code?

thank you. the code is working fine. could you please explain how sort is working in your code. what changes do i have to make to code to get all the data with out any sorting. thank you