Re: strange sort order

[Dan]

Hi Shawn,

Thanks for your script. I tried it out, and its not exactly right, so 
the data in my file appears not to conform to the numeric ordering.

Your numeric sort gets all the examples I gave right except Set 5. The 
original ordering in the file is:

0908
09088122595
09088122595
0909-114
whereas the output of your script on set 5 is:

0908
0909-114
09088122595
09088122595
which is incidentally the answer your script gives for the *ASCII* 
comparison. So, this is kind of wierd. Do you have an idea what is going 
on?

I did write a comparison function that seems to work on all examples in 
my file, but I'm reluctant to post it because its naive, fairly long, 
and its very slow, which is the reason for my initial post. I tested it 
by running through each line in my file and making sure my comparison 
function returned -1 when that was compared to the next line in the file.

Thanks again for your help. Any other hints?

Dan

Shawn McKinley wrote:
Hello Dan,
  To come up with the sort order you have here, you are sorting on a
numeric comparison (not ASCII).  If you want to sort in the 'normal'
fashion, just use the default ASCII sort.  Here is a simple demo:
use strict;
my $sets=
  {
    set1=>['0-CELEBRITY-0','0-CELEBRITY'],
    set2=>['0-0-7','0-0'],
    set3=>['000-AAA','000'],
    set4=>['000','0000'],
    set5=>['0908','09088122595','09088122595','0909-114']
  };
print 'Sorting on numeric comparison',$/,$/;
for(sort keys %$sets) {
  print '  ',$_,$/;
  # Numeric sort below
  for(sort { $a <=> $b } @{$sets->{$_}}) { print '    ',$_,$/; }
  print $/;
}
print $/,'Sorting on ASCII comparison',$/,$/;
for(sort keys %$sets) {
  print '  ',$_,$/;
  # ASCII sort (same as sort { $a cmp $b })
  for(sort @{$sets->{$_}}) { print '    ',$_,$/; }
  print $/;
}
exit;
Shawn

-----Original Message-----
From: Dan LaFlamme [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 13, 2004 6:13 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: strange sort order

Hi,

I have a file that appears to be somewhat sorted, but is not sorted 
according to the traditional unix sort. I'll give some examples, and if 
anyone recgonizes the way in which the file is sorted, please let me 
know. Also, since I may have to write a comparator function for use on 
this "sorted" file, any tips on doing that in the most efficient way 
possible would be helpful. Thanks.

Examples. I give some sets of strings to indicate which comes before the

other in the "sorted" file. The first one in each pair is less than the 
second. Each set is independent of the others. set x doesnt necessarily 
come before set y in the file if x < y.

Set 1:
0-CELEBRITY-0
0-CELEBRITY
Set 2:
0-0-7
0-0
Set 3:
000-AAA
000
Set 4:
000
0000
Set 5:
0908
09088122595
09088122595
0909-114





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