You should be aware of the special meanings of $a and $b for sorting. Using these variables outside a sort block may lead to some surprises.

You should also change s//; to m//;. Your snippet uses the substitution operator s, while you are after the match operator m. You should in any case take a look at the documentation that has been pointed to elsewhere in this thread.

Good luck!

pernod
--
Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.

In reply to Re: Pattern mattching by pernod
in thread Pattern mattching by Anonymous Monk

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