use URI; my $u1 = URI->new('http://host/bob?jack=2&joe=1'); my $u2 = URI->new('http://host/bob?joe=1&jack=2'); if ( sort_query($u1->query()) ne sort_query($u2->query())) { print "They're different all right\n"; } sub sort_query { join('&', sort split /&/, $_[0]) }