correct formatting of data is something new to me...I never thought about it once in this case of numbers vs strings but ,now, I will.

One more question

can anyone explain why I can't do slurp while populating the data var? I am aware of the memory issue that may arise if file is big but for these little programs is not an issue to me...but then again I am learning and you may have some experiences to share ;-)

 local $/;    # slurp mode

thank you all!

learning to do subs and modules now so many more new things to think about

In reply to Re^4: unxpected sort warnings while using sort by perlynewby
in thread unxpected sort warnings while using sort by perlynewby

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