If we wanted a statement that could be read from right to left completely we could use 

%h = ( $_, $h{$_}) for ($_) = sort {$a <=> $b} keys %h;

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"Take the keys of %h, sort them numericaly, take the first one and set the %h hash to the key and its value."

But I think this one is even more confusing. Maybe this 

%h = ( $_, $h{$_}) for ($_,) = sort {$a <=> $b} keys %h;

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would be better, the comma giving a hint that we do expect the sort to return several values, but we use just the first one.

Anyway in this case I would use some temp variable. Even though I did work with some functional languages and liked it :-)

Jenda
Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.
   -- Rick Osborne

Edit by castaway: Closed small tag in signature

In reply to Re^3: small steps toward Perl literacy, temp vars and parentheses by Jenda
in thread small steps toward Perl literacy, temp vars and parentheses by rir

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