sorting an array 1

[jriggs420]

I have this code

      3 @alpha=("Names","Steve","Linus","Larry","Bill");
      4 @alpha=sort(@alpha);
      5         foreach $name (@alpha){print $name."\n";}
      6 #print @alpha;

Suppose I only wanted to sort $alpha 1-4 (every line but the first one), how would I go about this? I'm looking for in general type solution here. Also the number of 'names' in the array will be dynamic. TIA

Joe

A clever person solves a problem.
A wise person avoids it.

-- Einstein

 

[ishnid]

@alpha[1..4] = sort @alpha[1..4];

 

[jriggs420]

Cool thanks again Ishnid. What if the array contains more than five items tho? That's really the part that's giving me the most trouble. Here's the best code I have come with now:

      3 @alpha=("Names","Steve","Linus","Larry","Bill");
      4 $first=shift(@alpha);
      5 @alpha=sort(@alpha);
      6 unshift(@alpha, $first);

Of course your code looks more efficient. But I can't figure out the syntax to get yours working. Seems like it would be

@alpha[1..$#] = sort @alpha[1..$#];

perl doesn't like that line tho, something about a referenced variable I think. Do you have any ideas about this?

A clever person solves a problem.
A wise person avoids it.

-- Einstein

 

[knights199]

How about

@alpha[1..$#alpha] = sort @alpha[1..$#alpha];

 

[KevinADC]

You probably should be using a more suitable data structure:

my $names = { NAMES => [qw(Fred Jane Jim Sally)] };
my $names = [qw(Fred Jane Jim Sally)];
etc
etc

or even just a regular old hash:

%names = (
Sally => 1,
Fred => 1,
Jane => 1,
Jim => 1
);

where the number 1 could be some related info about each person/name.