Sort::Key::Maker(3pm)					User Contributed Perl Documentation				     Sort::Key::Maker(3pm)

NAME

       Sort::Key::Maker - multikey sorter creator

SYNOPSYS

	 # create a function that sorts strings by length:
	 use Sort::Key::Maker sort_by_length => sub { length $_},  qw(integer);

	 # create a multikey sort function;
	 # first key is integer sorted in descending order,
	 # second key is a string in default (ascending) order:
	 use Sort::Key::Maker ri_s_keysort => qw(-integer string);

	 # some sample data...
	 my @foo = qw(foo bar t too tood mama);

	 # and now, use the sorter functions previously made:

	 # get the values on @foo sorted by length:
	 my @sorted = sort_by_length @foo;

	 # sort @foo inplace by its length and then by its value:
	 ri_s_keysort_inplace { length $_, $_ } @foo;

DESCRIPTION

       Sort::Key::Maker is a pragmatic module that provides an easy to use interface to Sort::Key multikey sorting functionality.

       It creates multikey sorting functions on the fly for any key type combination and exports them to the caller package.

       The key types natively accepted are:

	 string, str, locale, loc, integer, int,
	 unsigned_integer, uint, number, num

       and support for other types can be added via Sort::Key::Register (or also via Sort::Key::register_type()).

   USAGE
       use Sort::Key::Maker foo_sort => @keys;
	   exports two subroutines to the caller package: "foo_sort (&@)" and "foo_sort_inplace (&@)".

	   Those two subroutines require a sub reference as their first argument and then respectively, the list to be sorted or an array.

	   For instance:

	     use Sort::Key::Maker bar_sort => qw(int int str);

	     @bar=qw(doo tomo 45s tio);
	     @sorted = bar_sort { unpack "CCs", $_ } @bar;
	     # or sorting @bar inplace
	     bar_sort_inplace { unpack "CCs", $_ } @bar;

       use Sort::Key::Maker foo_sort => &genmultikey, @keys;
	   when the first argument after the sorter name is a reference to a subroutine it is used as the multikey extraction function. The
	   generated sorter functions doesn't require neither accept one, i.e.:

	     use Sort::Key::Maker sort_by_length => sub { length $_ }, 'int';
	     my @sorted = sort_by_length qw(foo goo h mama picasso);

SEE ALSO

       Sort::Key, Sort::Key::Register.

       Sort::Maker also available from CPAN provides similar functionality.

AUTHOR

       Salvador Fandin~o, <sfandino@yahoo.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       Copyright (C) 2005 by Salvador Fandin~o

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself, either Perl version 5.8.4 or,
       at your option, any later version of Perl 5 you may have available.

perl v5.14.2							    2010-04-16						     Sort::Key::Maker(3pm)