@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 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

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?