sorting associative arrays

[verbatim]

array is generated by user inputing a random word list that is then organized by word length:

[#] = length of each word in each array

if i have an array ordered as such:

wordList[9] = ["associate", "documents" ]
wordList[5] = ["green", "about", "money" ]
wordList[3] = ["dog", "cat", "top", "big", "vat" ]
wordList[6] = ["floats" ]
 
how can i get these desired ordering results:
 
wordList[3] = ["dog", "cat", "top", "big", "vat" ]
wordList[5] = ["green", "about", "money" ]
wordList[6] = ["floats" ]
wordList[9] = ["associate", "documents" ]
 
my first attempt to reorder, rendered the following:
 
wordList[9] = ["dog", "cat", "top", "big", "vat" ]
wordList[5] = ["green", "about", "money" ]
wordList[3] = ["floats" ]
wordList[6] = ["associate", "documents" ]
 

correctly re-ordered each array, but not the [#] associated with it.

[Logician]

wordList[9] = ["associate", "documents" ]
wordList[5] = ["green", "about", "money" ]
wordList[3] = ["dog", "cat", "top", "big", "vat" ]
wordList[6] = ["floats" ]

You are not using associative array syntax.
You have a partially-populated two dimensional subscripted array.
On the assumption that all unmentioned array elements are undefined, and also assuming that the strings in each sub array will all be of the same length, you can copy just the defined elements of wordList to a new array, sort the array using a suitable comparator, then overwrite just the defined elements of wordList with all the elements of the sorted temporary array.

I tried it with no problems.