>perl -wMstrict -le "my @names = qw(FLY_ABC123_01.jpg PG_ABC123_03 SPL_ABC123_02.jpg FOO_ABC123_011 SPL_ABC123_021 SPL_ABC123_021.jpg); sub sort_123 { return map $_->[0], sort { $a->[1] <=> $b->[1] } map [ $_, m{ .* _ (\d+) }xms ], @_ ; } my @sorted = sort_123(@names); print qq{'$_'} for @sorted; " 'FLY_ABC123_01.jpg' 'SPL_ABC123_02.jpg' 'PG_ABC123_03' 'FOO_ABC123_011' 'SPL_ABC123_021' 'SPL_ABC123_021.jpg'