use strict;
$|=1;

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

sub xcmp{
    my $count = 0;
  
    sub get_count { return $count } # an inspector as a closure

    # and another closure
    sub compare 
    { 
        $count++;
        return $_[0] cmp $_[1];
    }
    return(\&compare, \&get_count);
}

my @funcs = xcmp();

print sort { $funcs[0]( $a, $b ) } @list;
print "\n";
print $funcs[1](), "\n";

@funcs = xcmp();
print sort { $funcs[0]( $a, $b ) } @list;
print "\n";
print $funcs[1](), "\n";