my @aoh = ( { first => 'fred', last => 'flintstone', age => 30 }, { first => 'wilma', last => 'flintstone', age => 26 }, { first => 'pebbles', last => 'flintstone', age => 3 }, { first => 'barney', last => 'rubble', age => 28 }, { first => 'betty', last => 'rubble', age => 24 }, { first => 'bammbamm', last => 'rubble', age => 2 }, { first => 'mr.', last => 'slate', age => 35 }, ); # The boss comes first! my %lastname_sortorder = qw( flintstone 2 rubble 3 slate 1 ); my @sorted = sort { $lastname_sortorder{$a->{last}} <=> $lastname_sortorder{$b->{last}} or # primary is lastname sort order $a->{age} <=> $b->{age} # secondary is age } @aoh;