I think the original poster is referring to the fact that they didn't need my $a or my $b but they did need my $c my $d , etc etc The reason for this is that $a and $b are global variables which are used by the sort function. See perldoc -f sort for more --- start quote ---

If the subroutine's prototype is "($$)", the elements to be compared are passed by reference in @_, as for a normal subroutine. This is slower than unprototyped subroutines, where the elements to be compared are passed into the subroutine as the package global variables $a and $b (see example below). Note that in the latter case, it is usually counter-productive to declare $a and $b as lexicals.

-- end quote ---

In reply to Re^2: use strict Question? by SirClive
in thread use strict Question? by Anonymous Monk

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