#!/usr/bin/env perl use 5.032; my @dates = qw( 02-03-2003 03-01-2015 01-15-2022 ); my @sorted = sort { my $new_a = join( q{-}, (split(/-/,$a))[2,0,1] ); my $new_b = join( q{-}, (split(/-/,$b))[2,0,1] ); $new_b cmp $new_a } @dates; say $sorted[0]; __END__ $ perl blonk.plx 01-15-2022