scratchpad graff <c> @sorted = map { s/^\S+ // } sort map { my ( $x ) = ( /^_(\S+)/ ) ? ( $1 ) : ( /(\S+)$/ ); "$x $_" } @unsorted; </c> Explanation (going upwards from the bottom, which is how it works): <ol> <li> The first map block (the one on the bottom) creates a lexically scoped variable $x, and assigns a single non-whitespace token (string) to it. The value of $x depends on whether $_ (the current string from @unprocessed that map is handling) begins with "_". If it does, $x gets the first token of the line (minus the "_"), otherwise, it gets the last token. <li> Each iteration of the first map outputs the string "$x $_" <li> The sort works in the normal way, working on the modified list of strings <li> The second map block (at the top) reprocesses the sorted list of strings, by undoing the work of the first one, by removing the initial token from each item. </ol> <P> An adaptation of a code snippet from [pad://LadyAleena]: <c> elsif ($type =~ /name/) { for ( $c, $d ) { my $x = ( /^_(.*)/ ) ? $1 : substr( $_, rindex( $_, ' ' )); $_ = "$x $_"; } return $c cmp $d; } </c>