Sorting Arrays

[Arthur Corliss]

On Tue, 28 Sep 1999, Kevin J Creason wrote:

> Here's what I'm doing, and I'm sure I am doing it backwards to
> some degree so please set me straight.  I've got a directory
> where I create empty files that are the candidates' names in
> an online election.  As each district places their total of
> votes they are appended to the candidates file with district
> name and votes.
> So my "top" array is the canidates names, another toplevel
> array is created that is the total votes for that candidates:
> @canlist @tvote
> 
> But each candidate file is opened and that information
> (district # and votes) is dumped into two other arrays: 
> 	 @district{$c,$vc} and $subvote{$c,$vc}
> The scalar 'c' matches the current canlist/tvote and 'vc'
> increments for the each district/vote entry.
> 
> Subvotes are added together to create one of the array entries
> $tvote. I hold on to the district for later statistics by
> district.
> 
> Here is my dilemma: I want to sort my @canlist and tvote by
> tvote, so that highest vote getters are listed on top instead
> of alphabetically.  I'm sure there is a way, I just haven't
> found it yet, but I also have to keep the other arrays in
> sync.
> Any ideas? If I have to completely recode that _may_ not be a
> bad thing... :)
> TIA 
> Kevin

One way to do that (albeit by brute force) is a simple bubble sort.  Instead
of two arrays, though, I might recommend a hash of candidate => votes, and an
array whose indexed order will be the sorted order.  Perhaps:

@by_votes = (keys %candidate);
for ($m = 0; $m < scalar @by_votes; $m++) {
	for ($i = $m + 1; $i < scalar @by_votes; $i++) {
		@by_votes[$m,$i] = @by_votes[$i,$m] if
			($candidate{$by_votes[$m]} < $candidate{$by_votes[$i]});
	}
}

	--Arthur Corliss
	  Bolverk's Lair -- http://www.odinicfoundation.org/arthur/
	  "Live Free or Die, the Only Way to Live" -- NH State Motto

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