The basic approach to this sort of problem is to normalize the strings so you can just do a simple alphabetic sort on them. This means padding out the data so that the sort will work correctly. I am not sure exactly how the letters are supposed to sort but something like this will get you on track. 

@data = qw(
    mozilla-1.4.2-3.0.2     mozilla-1.40-3.0.18     mozilla-1.4.2r-3.0
+.2
    mozilla-1.4g-3.0.18     mozilla-1.4.1-3.0.2     mozilla-1.4-3.0.7
    mozilla-1.4g-3.1.18     mozilla-1.4-3.0.1       mozilla-1.4-3.0.71
    mozilla-1.4.2s-3.0.2    mozilla-1.4-3.0.18      mozilla-1.4a-3.0.1
+8
);

@data = map{[ normalize($_), $_]}@data;
@data = sort { $a->[0] cmp $b->[0] } @data;

printf "%s\t%s\n", $_->[0], $_->[1] for @data;

sub normalize {
    my $str = shift;
    $str =~ s/(\-\w+\.\w+)\-/$1.0-/;
    #return join '', map{ sprintf "%3s", $_ }split m/[\-\.]/, $str;
    return join '', map{ s/^(\d+)(\w*)$/sprintf "%3s%1s", $1, $2?$2:' 
+'/e; $_ }split m/[\-\.]/, $str;
}

__DATA__
mozilla  1   4   0   3   0   1     mozilla-1.4-3.0.1
mozilla  1   4   0   3   0   7     mozilla-1.4-3.0.7
mozilla  1   4   0   3   0  18     mozilla-1.4-3.0.18
mozilla  1   4   0   3   0  71     mozilla-1.4-3.0.71
mozilla  1   4   1   3   0   2     mozilla-1.4.1-3.0.2
mozilla  1   4   2   3   0   2     mozilla-1.4.2-3.0.2
mozilla  1   4   2r  3   0   2     mozilla-1.4.2r-3.0.2
mozilla  1   4   2s  3   0   2     mozilla-1.4.2s-3.0.2
mozilla  1   4a  0   3   0  18     mozilla-1.4a-3.0.18
mozilla  1   4g  0   3   0  18     mozilla-1.4g-3.0.18
mozilla  1   4g  0   3   1  18     mozilla-1.4g-3.1.18
mozilla  1  40   0   3   0  18     mozilla-1.40-3.0.18

[download]

cheers

tachyon

In reply to Re: Version checking by tachyon
in thread Version checking by jasonc

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