I know this is a minor thing, but it's probably best to make sure that you use the same reference instead of making a new one. If $ouputRef was pulled from a blessed object, for example, then this reassignment creates a new instance that isn't linked in.

Assign back to the same reference just to be safe:
@$outputRef = sort @$outputRef;
These are "equivalent" in terms of functionality, but not in terms of effect. For an example of what I mean: 
my $foo = [ [ 4, 1, 6 ], [ 4, 1, 5 ] ];
my $foo_0 = $foo->[0];
my $foo_1 = $foo->[1];

 $foo_0 = [ sort @$foo_0 ];   # $foo_0 is "detached"
@$foo_1 = sort @$foo_1;       # Goes back into $foo->[1]

use Data::Dumper;
print Dumper($foo);

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In reply to Re^2: Why didn't this sort? by tadman
in thread Why didn't this sort? by brentheigold

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