#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; #simple sort tests my @a; @a = (3,5,9,2,15,90,200); print "Standard sort: " , join(" ",sort(@a)); print "\nCorreted numeric sort: ", join(" ", sort {$a <=> $b} @a); #try dates my @b = ('11/5/99','2/5/87','11/6/99'); print "\nUnsorted Dates: " , join(" ", @b) , "\n"; print "\nCustom Date Sort: ", join(" ", sort {date_sort($a, $b)} @b); sub date_sort { my ($first, $second) = @_; if($first =~ m/(\d+)\/(\d+)\/(\d+)/g) { my (@mm, @dd, @yy); ($mm[1], $dd[1], $yy[1]) = ($1, $2, $3); if ($yy[1] > 50) {$yy[1] += 1900} else {$yy[1] += 2000}; if($second =~ m/(\d+)\/(\d+)\/(\d+)/g) { ($mm[2], $dd[2], $yy[2]) = ($1, $2, $3); } if ($yy[2] > 50) {$yy[2] += 1900} else {$yy[2] += 2000}; if ($yy[1] > $yy[2]) {return($first cmp $second)} elsif ($yy[1] < $yy[2]) {return($second cmp $first)} else { #fall into testing month dates if($mm[1] > $mm[2]) {return ($first cmp $second)} elsif($mm[2] > $mm[1]) {return ($second cmp $first)} else { #if that fails, test the days if($dd[1] > $dd[2]) {return ($first cmp $second)} else {return ($second cmp $first)} } } ; } } 1;