Sure. 
sub number_to_letter {
  return chr(96+shift);
}

[download]
But the hash isn't a bad way to do it. You can make the assignment much simpler: 
my %h;
@h{1..18} = 'a'..'r';

[download]
Updated: fixed cut-and-paste-o whereby I had 'return' twice

In reply to Re: array value generation for sections by Zed_Lopez
in thread array value generation for sections by murugu

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