Your problem is that the while iterates over each record in turn (setting it to the magical $_), thus you need to set each element of each array in turn, this is done by modifying your code thusly: 

$i = -1;
while (<FILE>){  
    chomp;
    $i++;
   ($last[$i], $first[$i], $age[$i], $sex[$i], $height[$i], $weight[$i
+]) = split/,/;
}
die "Sorry, no data\n" if $i == -1;

[download]

Note you do not need the \ before the comma in your split or the parenths. Presume you have no problems with the sort, if not you can use: 

@alphabetical = sort @alphabetical

# the above is equivalent to
@alphabetical = sort {$a cmp $b} @alphabetical

@numerical = sort {$a <=> $b} @numerical;

# to reverse the sort order reverse the positions of $a and $b, or use
+ reverse sort @a

[download]

Hope this helps

Cheers

tachyon

In reply to Re: Re: Re: array splitting and sorting by tachyon
in thread array splitting and sorting by Anonymous Monk

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