How to sort on right most column

[Eric W. Ziegast]

Off the top of my head I did:

	#!/usr/bin/perl
	
	# Read in data from STDIN (or specified files) in to @lines
	@lines = (<>);
	
	# Subroutine to numerically compare last space-separated fields.
	sub rightmost {
		local(@a) = split(" ",$a);
		local(@b) = split(" ",$b);
		$a[$#a] <=> $b[$#b];
	}
	
	foreach (sort rightmost @lines) {
		print;
	}

After feeding it the following as standard input:

 FOO  BAR ACE CORPORATION                SUNNYVALE              2.00
 FOO  BAR ACER COMPUTED COMPANY          MILPITAS              20.00
 FOO  BAR APOLLO COMPUTER, INC.          CHELMSFORD             1.00
 FOO  BAR APPLE COMPUTER, INC.           CUPERTINO              8.00
 FOO  BAR BOEING                         TUKWILA               53.00
 FOO  BAR BOEING COMPUTER SERVICES       EDDYSTONE              2.00
 FOO  BAR CITIBANK N. A.                 ANDOVER                4.00
 FOO  BAR CITIBANK NORTH AMERICA         LONG ISLAND CITY      26.00

I got back:

 FOO  BAR APOLLO COMPUTER, INC.          CHELMSFORD             1.00
 FOO  BAR ACE CORPORATION                SUNNYVALE              2.00
 FOO  BAR BOEING COMPUTER SERVICES       EDDYSTONE              2.00
 FOO  BAR CITIBANK N. A.                 ANDOVER                4.00
 FOO  BAR APPLE COMPUTER, INC.           CUPERTINO              8.00
 FOO  BAR ACER COMPUTED COMPANY          MILPITAS              20.00
 FOO  BAR CITIBANK NORTH AMERICA         LONG ISLAND CITY      26.00
 FOO  BAR BOEING                         TUKWILA               53.00


There's probably a better way of doing this (isn't there always?), but
this is probably the most direct.

-- 
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| Eric W. Ziegast      Internet: ziegast at eng.umd.edu |
| Univ. of Merryland   Phonenet: Eric@[301.405.3689] |
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