I would guess you need a chomp here:

@list1 = <items>;       #This
chomp(@list = <items>); #to this
[download]

but it is hard to tell since I do not see you using the sort command anywhere. So I assume this is not the code you are having the problems with.

Couple of things Before you post you should always

turn on warnings use warnings;

use strict;

post the broken code.

grep

Unix - where you can thrown the manual on the keyboard and get a command