#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; use Data::Dumper; my @sorted = map [ split /[()\s]+/ ], sort ; print Dumper \@sorted; __DATA__ 00000(IDR) 86480 22 41.435 40.696 40.728167 0 FRM 3 00015( B ) 9312 24 45.460 43.808 42.001 409 208 FRM 0 00002( P ) 35248 24 38.568 39.327 40.641 253 53 FRM 2 #### $VAR1 = [ [ '00000', 'IDR', '86480', '22', '41.435', '40.696', '40.728167', '0', 'FRM', '3' ], [ '00002', 'P', '35248', '24', '38.568', '39.327', '40.641', '253', '53', 'FRM', '2' ], [ '00015', 'B', '9312', '24', '45.460', '43.808', '42.001', '409', '208', 'FRM', '0' ] ];