note salva <i><blockquote>going "no warnings" of course is not an option for me</blockquote></i> <p>Why not? there is nothing wrong in disabling them, at least if you know why they are happening: <c> @sorted = map{ $_->[0]} sort{ no warnings 'numeric'; $a->[2] <=> $b->[2] } map{[$_, split/sequence/]} @unsorted; </c> <p>However, for this particular case and as already stated in other monks answers, it is easier to extract just the number. <p>Besides that, if you are concerned about the sort performance, you should try [mod://Sort::Key] and [mod://Sort::Key::Radix]: <c> use Sort::Key::Radix 'ukeysort'; my @sorted = ukeysort { /(\d+)/; $1 } @unsorted; </c> 966478 966478