Update: suggestion about splitting is valid only if the result from database is "|"-separated, as cleverly pointed out here...

You had to say it immediately:

my @strings = split /\|/, $status;
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{
   local $" = "|";
   print "<br><font color=red>@sorted_strings</font><br>";
}
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Anyway, I'd probably use a more flexible, metadata-based approach:

my %subst (
   P => 'Posted',
   F => 'Posted',
   C => 'Posted',
   D => 'Posted',
   I => 'Posted',
   A => 'Accepted',
   N => 'New',
   R => 'Rejected',
   S => 'Save',
   X => 'Canceled',
);

my @sorted_strings = sort map { $subst{$_} } split /\|/, $status;

# The above line can be roughly expanded to the three lines below:
#
# my @status_letters = split /\|/, $status;
# my @strings;
# foreach (@status_letters) {
#    push @strings, $subst{$_}
# }
# my @sorted_strings = sort @strings;
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Nothing works but thanks...

You're the welcome, but you could post some more code and a real-world example of what ends up inside $status. I think that many of us got fooled into thinking that $status might contain the whole value "P|F|C|D|I|A|N|R|S|X", pipe characters included. Please post an example of an actual value and how you get it from the database.

Moreover, you're maybe doing some iteration over the results from the database. If so, please post the loop as well. As a rule of thumb, post anything that may help us understanding where you come from, how you munge your data and where you want to go. Cutting out all that's not necessary to the goal :)

Flavio
perl -ple'$_=reverse' <<<ti.xittelop@oivalf

Don't fool yourself.

Turning the glass sphere mode one I guess you may be after something like:

my @strings;
while ( whatever ) {
    # ...
    push @strings, $status;
}
my @sorted=sort @strings;
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$status=~s/P|F|C|D|I/Posted/g;
$status=~s/A/Accepted/g;
$status=~s/N/New/g;
$status=~s/R/Rejected/g;
$status=~s/S/Save/g;
$status=~s/X/Canceled/g;

my @strings = split /\|/, $status;
my @sorted_strings = sort @strings;
print "<br><font color=red>@sorted_strings</font><br>";
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Update: If there is for each record status is only one letter, then I misunderstood string 'P|F|C|D|I|A|N|R|S|X' and '|' stands for 'or'. In such case see blazar's post.

And if so the example code I provided there could be further simplified: no substituion at all should be necessary. Just hash lookup.

    while ($pointer = $sth->fetchrow_hashref)
    {
          ....code....

           $status=~s/P|F|C|D|I/Posted/g;
           $status=~s/A/Accepted/g;
           $status=~s/N/New/g;
           $status=~s/R/Rejected/g;
           $status=~s/S/Save/g;
           $status=~s/X/Canceled/g;

my @strings = $status;
my @sorted_strings = sort @strings;
print "<br><font color=red> @sorted_strings</font><br>";

}
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