I just noticed that Sorting help has a negative reputation. I'm guessing that it's 2 things in the post that have made the node accrue that reputation total.

• The lack of poster's code
• The line 'Please help me ASAP'

When I read that node, my first reaction was 'Jeez, another code writing service request'. I'm guessing by the vote, that this was a common first reaction. But I got to thinking and putting myself back all those years before I knew where to find answers/how to ask and I could see how someone wrote this with the right intention. There is nothing in the post about writing the code for them. Strictly speaking they are asking for 'help'. We can give them help and, in fact shmem and Marshall gave good answers. shmem pointing to the appropriate documentation and Marshall giving a detailed explanation on how to apply the knowledge they are seeking.

Getting to the 2 problems with how the OP asked.

The lack of code could easily be a lack of knowledge of where/how to find documentation that effectively teaches them how to even get that start, where code could be produced. perldoc is a start. http://perldoc.perl.org is great but I can see how someone new to perl doesn't know about it.

As to the 'Please help me ASAP'. 'ASAP' is generally considered a command in American culture, but if taken at face value is a simple request. We do have international users and they may not understand the implication of using 'ASAP'. But we can explain it, and not take offense.

We are stewards of how perl is viewed by the world, let's cut new users some slack. Let show them where/how to learn perl. The real problem could be our narrow view, from our experience in perl and perlmonks.org. Let's not let get in the way of helping someone into perl.