sub sorthasharray($$) { # takes reference to array of hashes, and array of key names to sort by.
        my ($hasharray, $keylist) = @_;
        my $keyCount; # counter
        my $hashCount; # counter
        for $hashCount ( 0 .. $#$hasharray ) {  # walk through the array
                for $keyCount ( 0 .. $#$keylist ) { # walk through the keys
                        if ( $$hasharray[$hashCount]{$$keylist[$keyCount]} =~ /^\d*?\.??\d*?$/ ) {  # check to see if this should be a numeric comparison
                                my $zeros = 12 - (length($$hasharray[$hashCount]{$$keylist[$keyCount]}));  # find out how many zeros we need 
#to pad to the right to make a string comparison equivalent to a numeric comparison 
#(this isn't onehundred percent accurate, especially for float numbers.  Anyone want to take a crack at it?
                                for $zeroCount ( 1 .. $zeros ) {
                                        $$hasharray[$hashCount]{sortkey} .= "0";  # padd the zeros
                                }
                        }
                        $$hasharray[$hashCount]{sortkey} .= $$hasharray[$hashCount]{$$keylist[$keyCount]};  # build sortkey by concatenating all sort keys in order
                }
        }
        @$hasharray = sort { $$a{sortkey} cmp $$b{sortkey} } @$hasharray;  # do the sort
        for $hashCount ( 0 .. @$hasharray ) {
                delete $$hasharray[$hashCount]{sortkey};  # delete the unneeded key from all the hashes
        }
}