#!/usr/bin/perl 
 
use strict; 
use warnings; 
 
my @data = ( 
    "Group 1 \t 1 \t Joe \t some address 1", 
    "Group 1 \t 3 \t Tim \t some address 3", 
    "Group 1 \t 2 \t Dan \t some address 2"); 
 
# Transform each element of @data into an array reference and sort them on the 2nd field. 
# This works because map returns a list whose elements are the last lvalue calculated inside the {} block 
# (in this case, $r). 
my @values = sort { $a->[1] <=> $b->[1] } map { my @a = split(/\t/, $_); my $r = \@a; } @data; 
 
# Print the result. 
map { print join("\t", @$_), "\n" } @values;

Group 1          1       Joe     some address 1 
Group 1          2       Dan     some address 2 
Group 1          3       Tim     some address 3

#!/usr/bin/perl 
use strict ; 
use warnings ; 
 
my (@array) = ("Group 1 \t 1 \t Joe \t some address 1", "Group 1 \t 3 \t Tim \t some address 3", "Group 1 \t 2 \t Dan \t some address 2") ; 
my(%data) ; 
foreach (@array){ 
   my($group_id,$possision,$name,$address) = split("\t",$_) ; 
   #Had to create a separat key, since I guess the key is the kombination of group and possision. 
   #Alternativly you could create one hash for all the groups, and a new hash for each possision in the group. 
   #The downside of that solution is that it will be more complex, but more generic. 
   my($key) = "$group_id:$possision" ; 
   $data{$key}{group_id} = $group_id ; 
   $data{$key}{possision} = $possision ; 
   $data{$key}{name} = $name ; 
   $data{$key}{address} = $address ; 
} 
 
foreach my $key (sort keys %data){ 
   print "$data{$key}{group_id} $data{$key}{possision} $data{$key}{name} $data{$key}{address}\n" ; 
}

#!/usr/bin/perl 
use strict ; 
use warnings ; 
 
my (@array) = ("Group 1 \t 1 \t Joe \t some address 1", "Group 1 \t 3 \t Tim \t some address 3", "Group 1 \t 2 \t Dan \t some address 2") ; 
my(%groups) ; 
foreach (@array){ 
   my($group_id,$possision,$name,$address) = split("\t",$_) ; 
   $groups{$group_id}{$possision}{group_id} = $group_id ; 
   $groups{$group_id}{$possision}{name} = $name ; 
   $groups{$group_id}{$possision}{address} = $address ; 
} 
 
foreach my $group_id (sort keys %groups){ 
   foreach my $possision (sort keys %{$groups{$group_id}}){ 
      print "$group_id $possision $groups{$group_id}{$possision}{name} $groups{$group_id}{$possision}{address}\n" ; 
   } 
}