Win8 Strawberry 5.30.3.1 (64) Wed 12/02/2020 16:16:13 C:\@Work\Perl\monks >perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -l my @list = ( '1,cat', '2,dog', '22,mouse', '11,eel', '001,elk', '13,mink'); my @sorted = sort { no warnings 'numeric'; $a <=> $b } @list; print for @sorted; ^Z 1,cat 001,elk 2,dog 11,eel 13,mink 22,mouse Win8 Strawberry 5.8.9.5 (32) Wed 12/02/2020 16:18:25 C:\@Work\Perl\monks >perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -l my @list = ( '1,cat', '2,dog', '22,mouse', '11,eel', '001,elk', '13,mink'); # my @sorted = sort { no warnings 'numeric'; $a <=> $b } @list; my @sorted = sort { no warnings; $a <=> $b; } @list; "no" not allowed in expression at - line 3, at end of line BEGIN not safe after errors--compilation aborted at - line 3.