It's easy to sort a hash by it's key, but to sort by it's value, the subroutines below are a life safer!

From: http://www.devdaily.com/perl/edu/qanda/plqa00016/

#----------------------------------------------------------------------#
#  FUNCTION:  hashValueAscendingNum                                    #
#                                                                      #
#  PURPOSE:   Help sort a hash by the hash 'value', not the 'key'.     #
#             Values are returned in ascending numeric order (lowest   #
#             to highest).                                             #
#----------------------------------------------------------------------#

sub hashValueAscendingNum {
   $HASH{$a} <=> $HASH{$b};
}


#----------------------------------------------------------------------#
#  FUNCTION:  hashValueDescendingNum                                   #
#                                                                      #
#  PURPOSE:   Help sort a hash by the hash 'value', not the 'key'.     #
#             Values are returned in descending numeric order          #
#             (highest to lowest).                                     #
#----------------------------------------------------------------------#

sub hashValueDescendingNum {
   $HASH{$b} <=> $HASH{$a};
}