use strict; use warnings; my @foods = qw(abc abc1 abc2 abc_1 abc_2 abc01_1); # Create a Custom Sort my @sort_char_order = sort map {chr $_} (1..127); # Move '_' to before '0' in your list; my @your_char_order = map {$_ eq '0' ? ('_', '0') : $_ eq '_' ? () : $_} @sort_char_order; my $sort_char_order = join '', @sort_char_order; my $your_char_order = join '', @your_char_order; my $trans_word = eval qq{ sub { my \$param = shift; \$param =~ tr/\Q$your_char_order\E/\Q$sort_char_order\E/; return \$param; } }; # Sort by your custom definition my @sorted_foods = map { $_->[0] } sort { $a->[1] cmp $b->[1] } map { [ $_, $trans_word->($_) ] } @foods; print join ' ', @sorted_foods; # abc abc_1 abc_2 abc01_1 abc1 abc2