Sorting a Hash

[LostS]

Hey Everyone
OK The company I am with wants me to accomplish this. Take 4 flat files. Each one contianing the names and info of the employees in that department. They want a search engine. I need to search each file if they select all or search search individual files if they select a group. Now my issue is on sorting. I need to sort first by the last name then by the first name. So say Williams, John will come before Williams, Sam. How would I setup this type os sort criteria where it sorts by last name then sorts by first name... Any suggestions or questions??

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Billy S.
Slinar Hardtail - Guildless
Datal Ephialtes - Guildless
RallosZek.Net Admin/WebMaster
Aerynth.Net Admin/WebMaster

perl -e '$cat = "cat"; if ($cat =~ /\143\x61\x74/) { print "Its a cat!
+\n"; } else { print "Thats a dog\n"; } print "\n";'

[Masem]

my @sorted_keys = sort {
    $hash{$a}->{last} cmp $hash{$b}->{last} || 
    $hash{$a}->{first} cmp $hash{$b}->{first} }
    keys %hash;

-----------------------------------------------------
Dr. Michael K. Neylon - [e-mail] || "You've left the lens cap of your mind on again, Pinky" - The Brain
"I can see my house from here!"
It's not what you know, but knowing how to find it if you don't know that's important

[dragonchild]

Pass a function into sort that sorts on two criteria.

This kind of problem is directly addressed in a very large number of nodes (doing a SuperSearch for "search" might help) as well as in nearly every Perl book ever printed.

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

[jackdied]

Also check out Schwartzian Transform, which is just the name given to using sort efficiently with complex data structures. Even if you don't use it for this project, you will sooner or later.

-jackdied

[Fletch]

$ perldoc -q sort
Found in /usr/lib/perl5/5.6.1/pod/perlfaq4.pod
       How do I sort an array by (anything)?
...
       How do I sort a hash (optionally by value instead of key)?
...
       How can I always keep my hash sorted?
...