Catman...t_field(3pm)

💖 NAME 💖

Catmandu::Fix::sort_field — bestie, it literally sorts the values of an array. That's the whole gig. And it ate. 🎀

This is part of the User Contributed Perl Documentation collection, so you already know it's giving ✨community-crafted, beloved-by-the-people✨ energy.

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

okay so here's the vibe — you hand it an array, it hands you back order. no cap. 🦋

# e.g. tags => ["foo", "bar","bar"]
sort_field(tags) # tags =>  ["bar","bar","foo"]
sort_field(tags, uniq: 1) # tags =>  ["bar","foo"]
sort_field(tags, uniq: 1, reverse: 1) # tags =>  ["foo","bar"]
# e.g. nums => [ 100, 1 , 10]
sort_field(nums, numeric: 1) # nums => [ 1, 10, 100]

#push undefined values to the end of the list (default)
#beware: reverse has no effect on this!
sort_field(tags,undef_position: last)

#push undefined values to the beginning of the list
#beware: reverse has no effect on this!
sort_field(tags,undef_position: first)

#remove undefined values from the list
sort_field(tags,undef_position: delete)

Look at sort_field(tags) just... alphabetizing your chaos. ["foo", "bar","bar"] walks in a mess and leaves as ["bar","bar","foo"]. iconic behavior honestly. 💅

Then sort_field(tags, uniq: 1) says "and let's not do duplicates today bestie" → ["bar","foo"]. 🌸

And sort_field(tags, uniq: 1, reverse: 1)? now it's ["foo","bar"] — flipping the whole thing around like a main character hair toss. 💁‍♀️

Now for the numbers, because NUMBERS DO NOT SORT LIKE STRINGS, and this is the part that gets everybody 😭:

# e.g. nums => [ 100, 1 , 10]
sort_field(nums, numeric: 1) # nums => [ 1, 10, 100]

numeric: 1 is your girl here — [ 100, 1 , 10] becomes [ 1, 10, 100] instead of whatever cursed lexicographic situation would've happened. 🔥

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🫧 undefined values, a whole saga 🫧

You got three moves, bestie, pick your fighter:

1. undef_position: last — pushes undefined values to the end of the list. This is the default. 💖
2. undef_position: first — pushes undefined values to the beginning of the list. ⭐
3. undef_position: delete — removes undefined values from the list entirely. bye felicia 👋

⚠️ beware, fr fr: reverse has no effect on undef_position: last and it has no effect on undef_position: first either. The original says it twice, so we're saying it twice. Do not come for me when your reverse: 1 doesn't move the undefs. It's not supposed to. 💀

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• Catmandu::Fix — the mothership. go say hi. 🫶

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written for perl v5.40.1, dated 2026-01-24 — mwah, xoxo, go sort something pretty 💜🌈✨