Re^4: How can I sort this data on the first field

[Chady]

I left this out on purpose :)

You still can do it without manipulating the original data.

print sort { $a <=> $b } <DATA>;
__DATA__
9|microsoft
70|aol
108|netscape
35|mozilla
40|opera

The main issue here is what you want to do with the data at the end, since you're printing it in the same format as it started with, then you don't need to split it only to join it back at the end since sort will work either way.