You can use the method that you stated, however you cannot use the variables you used. $1, $2, et al are special variables used to catpure in a regular expression. You cannot assign to them explicitly. I'll also head off the next logical avenue: don't use $a and $b; they are special variables used by the sort function. You can assign to them, but it affect sort if you do. I would suggest using descriptive variable names.

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