This is a FAQ. Please see perlfaq4 on How do I sort an array by (anything)?.

In complement to Corion's answer: Re: sorting hash by a certain value (that it is in an array)

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;

my %books=(
    '34' => ['enlgish', 'dani M. rod', 54],
    '24' => ['spanish', 'ramk rovale', 41],
    '54' => ['enlgish', 'bob falicas', 17],
);


my @sorted_books = sort {
    $books{$a}->[1] cmp $books{$b}->[1]
    #lc($books{$a}->[1]) cmp lc($books{$b}->[1])
} keys %books;

print "@sorted_books";
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Update: print sorted books

for my $book_id (@sorted_books) {
    print "$book_id: ",join ", ",@{ $books{$book_id} };
    print "\n";
}
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this is not about sorting an array, it's about sorting an hash that has arrays in it. the example by brx created a new sorted array @sorted_books. I need the %books hash to be sorted as so:

%books=(
   '54' => ['enlgish', 'bob falicas', 17], 
   '34' => ['enlgish', 'dani M. rod', 54],
   '24' => ['spanish', 'ramk rovale', 41],
);
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I don't see how the example by brx gives me that. when I print out the %books hash using this:

while (my($key, $value) = each(%books)){
    print "$key: $value\n";
}
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I get the same unsorted result.

A hash cannot be sorted, as its keys have no order. You need to generate your list from the hash, then sort that list. This is a FAQ. Please (again!) read perlfaq4, this time on How do I sort a hash (optionally by value instead of key)?.

A hash is a different data structure than an array. Its advantage is that it allows arbitrary strings as keys instead of just a number. The disadvantage is that it can't be sorted. Read about "hash tables" on wikipedia if you want to know why.

Perhaps you could use Tie::IxHash?

   my %unordered=(...);
   tie my %ordered, "Tie::IxHash";
   for my $key (sort {$unordered{$a}[1] cmp $unordered{$b}[1]} keys %$
+unordered) {
      $ordered{$key}=$unordered->{$key};
   };
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I don't see how the example by brx gives me that.

See my update at Re: sorting hash by a certain value (that it is in an array).

I am not sure what you mean by sort it. It is not possible to sort a hash in same sense as sorting an array. You can process the contents of the hash in any order. Refer: perldoc -q "sort a hash".

Also be warned that sorting names can be quite tricky. The following example should get you started. Note use of "Schwartzian Transformation" also described in perfaq4 under: perdoc -q "sort an array"

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
my %books=(
    '34' => ['enlgish', 'dani M. rod', 54],
    '24' => ['spanish', 'ramk rovale', 41],
    '54' => ['enlgish', 'bob falicas', 17],
);

my @sorted_list = 
    map {$books{$_->[0]}}
    sort {lc $a->[1] cmp lc $b->[1]}
    map {[$_,$books{$_}[1] =~ /\b(\w+)$/]}
    keys %books
    ;

print Dumper \@sorted_list;
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