#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my $ranking_string = "32,15,4,72,13,28,14"; my @ranking = split (/,/, $ranking_string); my $i =1; my %ranking_hash = map {$_ => $i++} @ranking; my $default_best_num = (@ranking)[-1]; while (my $line = ) { chomp $line; my @ranking = sort by_min_ranking grep {$ranking_hash{$_}} (split /,/, $line); if (@ranking){print "@ranking - first one is \"best\"\n"} else {print "$default_best_num - default used\n"} } sub by_min_ranking { $ranking_hash{$a} <=> $ranking_hash{$b} } #prints: #15 4 13 - first one is "best" #15 4 13 - first one is "best" #14 - default used