Re: Sorting Multilevel Hashes

[hippo]

To my eyes that code is bordering on unmaintainable. If you are attempting to sort by key at each level in turn (which is what I think you are doing - correct me if that isn't the case) then think about recursion. Applying the relevant FAQ (which also discusses sorting by value) just once in a recursive subroutine should do the trick without resorting to $foo{$bar}{$baz}{$quux}{$frob} constructs.

[newCoder]

thats right . I want to sort by keys first and then value. It works fine when I do not attempt to add a sort by value. If you could provide an example of how to sort by value in this kind of hash I would really appreciate it.

[hippo]

Here's an example of sorting by key using recursion.

#!/usr/bin/perl -Tw
#
# Multi-level hash sort

use strict;
use warnings;

my %timing1 = initmyhash();

printsortedhash (\%timing1, '');
exit;

sub initmyhash {
    # Obviously,  put whatever sets up your hash here.
    return ( dog => 'rover', cat => { name => 'sandy', age => 10 } );
}

sub printsortedhash {
    my ($this, $report) = @_;
    for my $key (sort keys %$this) {
        if (ref $this->{$key} eq 'HASH') {
            printsortedhash ($this->{$key}, $report . "\t $key")
        } else {
            print $report . "\t $key\t $this->{$key}\n";
        }
    }
}

The FAQ linked above shows how to sort by value instead/also. Take your pick.