CSV File - Sort data by second field

[deppeler]

How do I sort the contents of a flat file based on the second field?
What I have now sorts by the first field - 0

[CODE=perl]
open (BASE, $dbk) || do {&no_open;};
@sorted = sort(<BASE>);
foreach $pair (@sorted) {
@show = split(/,/, $pair);

close(BASE);
[/CODE]

My fields are:
[0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 ,8,9,10,11]

many thanks
Paul

[deppeler]

I also tried this...

[CODE=perl]
open (BASE, $db) || do {&no_open;};
print BASE "$snumber,$kit, $id,$item_name, $in_out,$itemd_ name,$date_out, $date_in,$name_ out,$staff_out, $staff_in";
@sorted = <BASE>;

foreach $line (sort secondfield @sorted) {
@show = split(/,/,"$line");
sub secondfield {
($snumber,$kit, $id,$item_name, $in_out,$itemd_ name,$date_out, $date_in,$name_ out,$staff_out, $staff_in)= split(/,/,$a);
($snumber2,$kit 2,$id2,$item_na me2,$in_out2,$i temd_name2,$dat e_out2,$date_in 2,$name_out2,$s taff_out2,$staf f_in2)= split(/,/,$b);
return ($kit2 <=> $kit);
}
$show[0] etc

close (BASE);
}
[/CODE]

but it still sorts by the first field.

thanks

[miller]

You must first parse the contents of your file so that perl can do the sorting on the field. There is no magic available here. You must program it all

[CODE=perl]
my @data;
open(BASE, $db) or die "Can't open $db: $!";
while (<BASE>) {
chomp;
push @data, [split ',', $_];
}
[/CODE]

And then you can sort. The sort documentation itself will tell you how to do this.

http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/sort.html

[CODE=perl]
my @sorted = sort {$a->[1] <=> $b->[1]} @data;
[/CODE]

- Miller

[numberwhun]

Its so funny, but that is exactly what I was thinking and working on for him, I just got caught up in work coding. Thanks for that confirmation Miller!

Jeff

[deppeler]

Great!...thanks a heap

[KevinADC]

You must first parse the contents of your file so that perl can do the sorting on the field. There is no magic available here. You must program it all

[CODE=perl]
my @data;
open(BASE, $db) or die "Can't open $db: $!";
while (<BASE>) {
chomp;
push @data, [split ',', $_]
}
[/CODE]

And then you can sort. The sort documentation itself will tell you how to do this.

http://perldoc.perl.or g/functions/sort.html

[CODE=perl]
my @sorted = sort {$a->[1] <=> $b->[1]} @data;
[/CODE]

- Miller

There is a module or two that will handle the backend stuff of sorting mixed data in delimited fields. But really it seems so much easier to just write your own sorting function than to use a module unless a person just can't grasp how the sort() function works.

[miller]

It doesn't surprise me that there would be such modules. Any ones in particular you were thinking of?

I also considered using Text::CSV_XS just to demonstrate how one would, but it felt like overkill given the data as he expressed it. Must better to just focus the problem at sorting complex data structures.

- Miller

[KevinADC]

It doesn't surprise me that there would be such modules. Any ones in particular you were thinking of?


- Miller

No, none in particular.