Problem Statement

Sort an array of composite structures by a key.

For example, if you define a composite structure that presents a name-value pair (in pseudo-code): and an array of such pairs: then define a sort routine that sorts the array x by the key name. This task can always be accomplished with Sorting Using a Custom Comparator. If your language is not listed here, please see the other article.

Let's start with the solution:

list="namez:order!
name space:in
name1:sort
name:Please"

newline="
"

dumplist() {
	(
		IFS=$newline
		for pair in $list; do
			(
				IFS=:
				set -- $pair
				echo "  $1 => $2"
			)
		done
	)
}

echo "Original list:"
dumplist

list=`IFS=$newline; printf %s "$list" | sort -t: -k1,1`

echo "Sorted list:"
dumplist