Until perl 6, you'll have to keep it like this. Last I looked, there's going to be a new operator akin to ~= that basically uses the left hand list as the argument to the right hand side, and then set the result of the right hand side to the left hand side, such that you can do: @d ?= sort; (it's not ?=, just as an example of the simplicity of the code)

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Dr. Michael K. Neylon - mneylon-pm@masemware.com || "You've left the lens cap of your mind on again, Pinky" - The Brain
It's not what you know, but knowing how to find it if you don't know that's important