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; #### __DATA__ meth2, \@array1, 3 meth3, \@array2, 36 meth1, \@array3, 8 meth5, \@array4, 10