Sorting Arrays in Perl

The sort() function in Perl sorts each element of an array according to the ASCII Numeric standards. This function has the following syntax −

Syntax

sort [ SUBROUTINE ] LIST

This function sorts the LIST and returns the sorted array value. If SUBROUTINE is specified then specified logic inside the SUBROUTINE is applied while sorting the elements.

Example

 Live Demo

#!/usr/bin/perl
# define an array
@foods = qw(pizza steak chicken burgers);
print "Before: @foods\n";
# sort this array
@foods = sort(@foods);
print "After: @foods\n";

Output

This will produce the following result −

Before: pizza steak chicken burgers
After: burgers chicken pizza steak

Please note that sorting is performed based on the ASCII Numeric value of the words. So the best option is to first transform every element of the array into lowercase letters and then perform the sort function.