#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my @array = ( 'Item1 - 2 foo, 2 bar', 'Item2 - 0 foo, 1 bar', 'Item3 - 1 foo, 3 bar', 'Item4 - 1 foo, 2 bar', ); my @sorted = map { $_->[0] } # $b <=> $a for descending is better than reverse sort sort { $b->[2] <=> $a->[2] || $b->[1] <=> $a->[1] } map { [$_, / (\d+) [^\d]+(\d+)/] } @array; print "$_\n" for @sorted;