Perl stores the value as a "number". This could be binary, or hex, or bcd, or whatever. Interpolation of that value causes it to be rendered in decimal, yes, and that's why you don't recognize it, because you aren't RainMan and can't convert from decimal to "bits" in your head. {grin}

The leading 0 in 040700 tells Perl to accept this number in octal (again, easier to encode bits as a human that way), but once accepted, it's again a "number", and can be compared with other "numbers".

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker