I'd save an array of values under the hash key and sort afterwards (looks not very elegant but works):
...
my @stuff= (
'hi: 65 abcdefghijklmnopqrst 85', 'bye: 12 bcdefghijklmnopqrstu 32'
+,
'hi: 86 sagfsdgsgwsehbbdgops 106', 'bye: 33 afasdfdfafasaafadfad 53
+');
my %cnt;
/(\w+)\D+(\d+)\s+\w+\s+(\d+)/ && push @{$cnt{$1}},($2,$3) for @stuff;
@$_ = sort { $a <=> $b } @$_ for values %cnt;
print
map "\$${_}_from=$cnt{$_}[0] and \$${_}_to=$cnt{$_}[-1]\n",
keys %cnt;
...
displays here:
$hi_from=65 and $hi_to=106
$bye_from=12 and $bye_to=53
Addendum: after reading the other posts I'd think one could also beam the values into predefined my-Variables by an eval. Im not sure if (w/error handling added) this would be that bad:
use strict; # go for it
use warnings;
my @stuff= (
'hi: 65 abcdefghijklmnopqrst 85', 'bye: 12 bcdefghijklmnopqrstu 32'
+,
'hi: 86 sagfsdgsgwsehbbdgops 106', 'bye: 33 afasdfdfafasaafadfad 53
+');
my %cnt;
/(\w+)\D+(\d+)\s+\w+\s+(\d+)/ && push @{$cnt{$1}},($2,$3) for @stuff;
@$_ = sort { $a <=> $b } @$_ for values %cnt;
my ($hi_from, $hi_to, $bye_from, $bye_to); # if we *know* what to exp
+ect
while( my ($k,$v) = each %cnt ) {
my @evil_plan = ( "\$${k}_from=$$v[0]", "\$${k}_to=$$v[-1]" );
print join(' and ', @evil_plan), "\n"; # show what we prepared
map eval, @evil_plan; # execute the unthinkable
}
print "\n$hi_from, $hi_to \n$bye_from, $bye_to\n"; # control
Regards
mwa