#!/usr/bin/perl -l use strict; use warnings; my %hash = ( foo => 1, whatever => { rank => 11 }, you => { rank => 2 }, want => { rank => 7 }, ); my @arr = grep { $_ ne 'foo' } keys %hash; my @sorted = sort { $hash{$a}->{rank} <=> $hash{$b}->{rank} } @arr; print "@arr"; print "@sorted";