I'm a bit reluctant to sort a whole array if all that is needed is to find a maximum value, because the algorithmic complexity is higher (meaning it is in theory less efficient). Having said that, I must admit it probably does not matter unless then number of file is very high.

Anyway, you might avoid a sort with something like this: 

my %hash
for my $file (glob("*.*")) {
    my ($root, $ext) = split /\./, $file;
    if (defined $hash{root) {
        $hash{$root} = $ext if $ext > $hash{$root};
    } else {
        $hash{$root} = $ext;
    }
}

[download]
The if ... else statement could be reduced to a simple if statement and a Boolean operator: 
$hash{$root} = $ext if (not defined $hash{$root}) or $ext > $hash{$roo
+t};

[download]
but I wanted to make it as easy to read as possible.

In reply to Re: Find the last item in a series of files by Laurent_R
in thread Find the last item in a series of files by fredho

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