You should not be using $a and $b however, as they are "special" variables used by sort

Doesn't matter. sort localizes $a and $b.

$a = 1;
print((sort { $b cmp $a } qw( a b c z y x )), $/);
print($a, $/);  # Prints "1"

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In reply to Re^2: Replace $a with $b if $a ne $b by ikegami
in thread Replace $a with $b if $a ne $b by Anonymous Monk

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