# Note: Read Schwartzian Transforms from bottom-up, # it makes it easier to understand that way. @sorted = # And finally map back to the original array. # [3,['CCI003','1','N']] -> ['CCI003','1','N']. map { $_->[1] } # Sort by the numeric component we just extracted sort { $a->[0] <=> $b->[0] } # Map onto an array consisting of the numeric component # of the first part. # ['CCI003','1','N'] -> [3,['CCI003','1','N']. map { [ $_->[0]=~/(\d+)/, $_] } # Take the initial array @array;