Sorting a file list

Hello,

I have a data file to where i print lines of data.
The firts part of the line contans the date of writing.
I uese this kind of line:
part1|part2|parst3|

Now i want to display the lines in order of date(the first part) to a 
html file
How do i do this whit a cgi script.

Thanks,
Eelco Alosery