my %pad = ( 1 => 0, 4 => 3, 9 => 4, 13 => 6 ); my $longest = 6; #### my $sentence = 11; #### my $padded = sum map $pad{$_}, grep $sentence>=$_, keys %pad; my $chapter = int( $padded / $longuest ) + 1; my $in_chapter = $padded % $longuest + 1