my %h = ( rock => 3, candle => 25, bug => 3, rain => 12, dust => 17, spider => 12, ); for( sort { $h{$b} <=> $h{$a} || $a cmp $b } keys %h ) { print "$_ => $h{$_}\n"; } __output__ candle => 25 dust => 17 rain => 12 spider => 12 bug => 3 rock => 3