c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "my @test_data = ( 'a', ' b', ' e', ' f', ' g', ' c', ' d', 'h', ' i', ' j', ); print for @test_data; print '==========='; ;; print $_->[0] for sort { $a->[1] cmp $b->[1] } map [ $_, m{ \w+ }xmsg ], @test_data ; " a b e f g c d h i j =========== a b c d e f g h i j