#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; sub numerically { $a*1.0 <=> $b*1.0 or $a cmp $b }; my @words = qw(1e2 2e1 3 4 5); print 'Normal sort: ', join(', ', sort @words), "\n"; print 'Numeric sort: ', join(', ', sort numerically @words), "\n";