my @emails = qw/bob@a.com adam@c.com bob@c.com ralph@b.a.com/; { local $,="\n"; print @emails, $n; print map { scalar reverse } sort( map { scalar reverse } @emails ), $/; } #### bob@a.com adam@c.com bob@c.com ralph@b.a.com ralph@b.a.com bob@a.com bob@c.com adam@c.com #### @sorted_emails = map { scalar reverse } sort( map { scalar reverse } @emails );