> which has the added detriment of dropping off my animals...

maybe it has been mentioned before, but I can't seem to find it.

$a and $b are aliases of @list elements so $a=~s/,.+// will alter the original list.

That's why tybalt89 added an /r modifier in his solution

Actually I can't think of a useful application of aliasing in sort because elements are accessed multiple times in unpredictable ways.

  DB<93> $x=0; @list=a..d

  DB<94> x sort { $x++; ($a.=$x) cmp ($b.=$x) } @list
0  'a13'
1  'b14'
2  'c234'
3  'd2'
  DB<95> x @list
0  'a13'
1  'b14'
2  'c234'
3  'd2'
  DB<96>
[download]

any useful application???