well... you do a foreach of %pnl_ind, which gives you the sorted keys into the hash at the $symbol key level, which you put in $symbols_r... you then sort the HASH at that level, not the keys... that is one problem. Another problem is that you are trying to sort the values of the 'pnl' keys, but $symbols_r's keys are the $symbol keys, one level back from the 'pnl' keys...

Are you trying to do the following?

foreach my $symbol_set (sort keys %pnl_ind) {
      my $symbols_r=$pnl_ind{$symbol_set);
      foreach my $symbol (sort ($symbols_r->{$a}{'pnl'}<=>$symbols_r->
+{$b}{'pnl'}) keys %{$symbols_r} ) {
         ... etc
[download]

That should sort by symbol set, then return the symbol key sorted on the value of the 'pnl' hash entry inside it. Let me know if you need furthur clarification of bits of it.
                - Ant

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