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

UPDATE: Bug fix is uploaded. See below

If anyone has experience with the Sort::Key::Radix library, I would appreciate your input to see if I'm doing something blatantly wrong or if there's a bug in one of the methods I'm using.

I have an array of (uniform-length) hexadecmial strings:

@hexStr = ("339E84CBCF3C7", "2739E84CBCF3C", ...);

[download]

I would like to sort them and return a list of the sorted *indices* rather than just a list of the sorted hex strings. I used the keysort method from the author's non-Radix-based sorting library (Sort::Key::keysort) to successfully sort them with:

my @sortedIdx = keysort { $hexStr[$_] } (0..$#hexStr);

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I would prefer to sort with Sort::Key::Radix method because it is *MUCH* faster (when using the working "ssort" method on strings directly) than other sort methods I've used and it seemed rather straight-forward:

my @sortedIdx = skeysort { $hexStr[$_] } (0..$#hexStr);  # line 58

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But I get a bunch of errors:

Argument "273D09979E78F" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.
Use of uninitialized value in subroutine entry at sortHexIndices.pl li
+ne 58.
Argument "339E84CBCF3C7" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.
Argument "39CF4265E79E3" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.
Argument "1CE7A132F3CF1" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.
Argument "0E73D09979E78" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.
Argument "2739E84CBCF3C" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.
Argument "339CF4265E79E" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.
Use of uninitialized value in subroutine entry at sortHexIndices.pl li
+ne 58.
Argument "39CE7A132F3CF" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.
Argument "3CE73D09979E7" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.
Argument "1E739E84CBCF3" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.
Argument "0F39CF4265E79" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.
Argument "279CE7A132F3C" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.
Use of uninitialized value in subroutine entry at sortHexIndices.pl li
+ne 58.
Argument "33CE73D09979E" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.
Argument "39E739E84CBCF" isn't numeric in array element at sortHexIndi
+ces.pl line 58.

[download]

I thought Sort::Key::Radix::skeysort would be appropriate for sorting strings, hence the "s". Am I doing something wrong or does this appear to be a bug?

Thanks!

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Sort::Key::Radix::skeysort bug or user error?
by salva (Canon) on Apr 16, 2012 at 12:09 UTC
    There was a bug on the module. A new version is already available from CPAN.
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Re: Sort::Key::Radix::skeysort bug or user error?
by Anonymous Monk on Apr 16, 2012 at 08:50 UTC

    But I get a bunch of errors:

    :) Well, the code you posted doesn't use warning, so I don't see how you're getting those warnings :) 

    #!/usr/bin/perl --
use strict; use warnings;
my @magma = qw/
39CE7A132F3CF
1E739E84CBCF3
339E84CBCF3C7
39CF4265E79E3
2739E84CBCF3C
339E84CBCF3C7
273D09979E78F
1CE7A132F3CF1
39E739E84CBCF
33CE73D09979E
3CE73D09979E7
279CE7A132F3C
339CF4265E79E
0E73D09979E78
/;

use Sort::Key::Radix  qw/ skeysort /;
my @sortedIdx = skeysort {
    my $what = $_;
    warn "WHAT $what ";
    $what = $magma[$_] if not length $_  > length scalar @magma;
    return $what;
    }  0 .. $#magma ;
use Data::Dump qw/ dd /;
dd \@magma ;
dd \@sortedIdx ;
dd @magma[@sortedIdx];
__END__
$ perl what
WHAT 0  at what line 23.
WHAT 1  at what line 23.
WHAT 2  at what line 23.
WHAT 3  at what line 23.
WHAT 4  at what line 23.
WHAT 5  at what line 23.
WHAT 6  at what line 23.
WHAT 7  at what line 23.
WHAT 8  at what line 23.
WHAT 9  at what line 23.
WHAT 10  at what line 23.
WHAT 11  at what line 23.
WHAT 12  at what line 23.
WHAT 13  at what line 23.
WHAT 39CE7A132F3CF  at what line 23.
WHAT 1E739E84CBCF3  at what line 23.
WHAT 339E84CBCF3C7  at what line 23.
WHAT 39CF4265E79E3  at what line 23.
WHAT 2739E84CBCF3C  at what line 23.
WHAT 339E84CBCF3C7  at what line 23.
WHAT 273D09979E78F  at what line 23.
WHAT 1CE7A132F3CF1  at what line 23.
WHAT 39E739E84CBCF  at what line 23.
WHAT 33CE73D09979E  at what line 23.
WHAT 3CE73D09979E7  at what line 23.
WHAT 279CE7A132F3C  at what line 23.
WHAT 339CF4265E79E  at what line 23.
WHAT 0E73D09979E78  at what line 23.
[
  "39CE7A132F3CF",
  "1E739E84CBCF3",
  "339E84CBCF3C7",
  "39CF4265E79E3",
  "2739E84CBCF3C",
  "339E84CBCF3C7",
  "273D09979E78F",
  "1CE7A132F3CF1",
  "39E739E84CBCF",
  "33CE73D09979E",
  "3CE73D09979E7",
  "279CE7A132F3C",
  "339CF4265E79E",
  "0E73D09979E78",
]
[13, 7, 1, 4, 6, 11, 12, 2, 5, 9, 0, 3, 8, 10]
(
  "0E73D09979E78",
  "1CE7A132F3CF1",
  "1E739E84CBCF3",
  "2739E84CBCF3C",
  "273D09979E78F",
  "279CE7A132F3C",
  "339CF4265E79E",
  "339E84CBCF3C7",
  "339E84CBCF3C7",
  "33CE73D09979E",
  "39CE7A132F3CF",
  "39CF4265E79E3",
  "39E739E84CBCF",
  "3CE73D09979E7",
)

    [download]

    Apparently, on the first pass, $_ is the index, but subsequently it is the actual value --- the module interface doesn't exactly make sense to me, but if it really is faster ...

[reply]
[d/l]

      the code you posted doesn't use warning, so I don't see how you're getting those warnings :)

      most probably by calling it with perl -w ... from outside the programme.

      Cheers, Sören

[reply]

        most probably missing the gentle criticism, Cheers, Sören

        Yes, it was a subtle criticism about not providing Short, Self Contained, Correct Example. Yes, it was an effective question (all the parts were there), but you couldn't copy/paste/run the code and see the error, you had to add all the missing parts first

[reply]
      Thank you for digging in to it! What I posted was actually just a few snippets. Doesn't everyone automatically use strict & warnings?? ;^)
[reply]

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