I originally used Sort::Fields to create the report, but as I mention below most beginners don't like to use modules outside the standard ones.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use diagnostics;
use Sort::Fields;

my (@records, @report);
{
    my $data_file = 'test.dat';
    open my $fh, $data_file or
                    die "Can't open $data_file: $!";
        while (<$fh>) {
            # skip blank and commented lines
            next if /^\s*#/;
            next if /^\s*$/;

            # We'll look for lines that describe a report:
            if (/report:\s+sort\s+(\S*)/ )  {
                @report = split /,/, $1;
                next;
            }
            push @records, $_;
        }
}

my (@columns, @sort_description);
{
    my %field = (   source  => 1,
                    time    => 2,
                    sip     => 3,
                    sport   => 4,
                    dip     => 5,
                    dport   => 6,
                    hits    => 7,
                    acl     => 8,
                    lnum    => 9
                    );
    foreach (@report) {
        my ($name, $order) = split /-/;
        my $suffix = $name =~ /source|time/ ? '' : 'n';
        if ($order eq 'd') {
            push @sort_description, "$name:\t\tdescending\n";
            push @columns, "-$field{$name}$suffix";
        } else {
            push @sort_description, "$name:\t\tascending\n";
            push @columns, "$field{$name}$suffix";
        }
    }
}

{
    ### store report data in file
    my $report_file_name = "out.txt";
    open my $fh, '>', $report_file_name or
                    die "Can't Open $report_file_name: $!";
        my $date    = localtime;
        $date       =~ s/ /-/g;
        print $fh
            qq|\t\tREQUEST FOR SORTING\n\n|,
            @sort_description,
            qq|\n\nFILE WAS GENERATED ON:  $date\n\n|,
            fieldsort ',', \@columns, @records;
}
__END__
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