Here's a cute little hack for you. You don't specify whether you want them sorting or what, but anyway:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

# sorted list
my @list = sort qw(stereo tv monitor scanner keyboard mouse banana);

# add extra element if odd length, so next statement doesn't break
push @list, '' if @list%2;

# turn array into a hash
my %list = @list;

# text - need 'if' to avoid empty bullet if odd No. elements
for (sort keys %list) {
  printf("- %-20s", $_);
  printf("- %-20s", $list{$_}) if $list{$_};
  print "\n";
}

# html (snippet)
print qq(\n<table>\n);
for (sort keys %list) {
  printf("<tr><td>%s</td><td>%s</td></tr>\n", $_, $list{$_});
}
print qq(</table>\n);
[download]

This sorts them left -> right, top -> bottom. If you want the precedence the other way round, you need to work on things a bit more.

hth

cLive ;-)

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