use strict; my @Data; while(){ chomp($_); my($string,$listref,$count)= split(',' , $_); push(@Data,[$string,$listref,$count]); } print "METH:$_->[0]\tREF:$_->[1]\tCOUN:$_->[2]\n" for sort {$a->[0] cmp $b->[0]} @Data;