note tye <p>You simplified it a lot by dropping <code>$maxdigs</code>. Put that back in and I doubt you'll have saved more than a keystroke or two. :) But thanks for the <code>substr</code> method; I like that.</p> <code> substr("0000$1",-4) sprintf"%04.4d",$1 substr("0"x$maxdigs.$1,-$maxdigs) sprintf"%0$maxdigs.$maxdigs"."d",$1 </code> <p>When I saw the name [chip], I wondered if it was you. Welcome to Perl Monks! I've run into your work many times and have been impressed.</p> <p>If you know you don't need extra leading zeros, then you can also get away with:</p> <code> grep{s/(^|\D)0+(\d)/$1$2/g,1} sort grep{s/(\d+)/sprintf"%06.6d",$1/ge,1} @sects; </code> <p>Man, I shouldn't attempt this much thinking before breakfast.</p> 24765 24823