arturo answered the question you asked, but this might be a better way of doing what you are doing: 
my %cardinal = ( 1 => '1st',
                 2 => '2nd',
                 3 => '3rd',
                 map { $_ => "${_}th" } 4 .. 9 );

print $cardinal{$digit};

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In reply to Re: Simple question by indigo
in thread Simple question by Bliss

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