use strict;

my @list = qw/ box cow dog apple ant/;

{
    my $count = 0;

    sub get_count { return $count } # an inspector as a closure

    # and another closure
    sub compare 
    { 
        $count++;
        return $_[0] cmp $_[1];
    }
}

print sort { compare( $a, $b ) } @list;
print "\n";
print get_count();