Re^3: Golf: reverse sort /etc/passwd by UID

~~It works~~, using the exact input I specified (as well as my /etc/passwd file...

UPDATE: see my post about me being wrong...

Tommy
A mistake can be valuable or costly, depending on how faithfully you pursue correction

Comment on Re^3: Golf: reverse sort /etc/passwd by UID
Re^4: Golf: reverse sort /etc/passwd by UID by thundergnat (Deacon) on Feb 05, 2013 at 20:46 UTC
Notice that your input is already "sorted". All that one liner does is reverse it.	[reply]
Re^5: Golf: reverse sort /etc/passwd by UID by Tommy (Chaplain) on Feb 05, 2013 at 20:53 UTC
Noted. Re-reading perldoc -f sort reveals that the sort of "magic" I thought I was seeing wasn't the case. $a and $b are package globals explicitly passed by Perl itself to the sort block (or subroutine of your definition). It's not a bare leftside-rightside comparison of whatever expressions you may provide. You have to explicitly use the $a and $b package global symbols, and $_ isn't $a/$b. Them's the rules. I do indeed stand corrected. Tommy A mistake can be valuable or costly, depending on how faithfully you pursue correction	[reply]