#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

@a = qw(z x c v b n m); # make a little array

sort @a;        # sorts @a but result discarded!
print "@a\n";   # thus @a not sorted here. Here's why:

print sort @a;  # prints the sorted @a array
print "\n@a\n"; # damn, still not stored sorted though!

@a = sort @a;   # assigns sorted result to @a
print "@a\n";   # as @a now contains sorted result...
                # this works!