Anon, ++jethro, and ++ikegami, thanks for the great responses.

The reason I asked this question is because I'm seeing this problem when I use Sort::Fields. The script below will show what I mean:

use strict;
use warnings;
use Sort::Fields;
use Data::Dumper;

my @data = ( "  56 1752.eps", "  56 2613.eps", "  56 3469.eps",
"   8 INPUT000", "  16 INPUT001", "  16 INPUT002", "  96 MTA.1.ps",
"  96 MTA.6.ps", "  80 MTA.7.ps", "  32 head.eps", "   8 labs",
"   0 lib", "   8 mkexe.bat", " 112 out", "   0 screenshots",
"8720 trace.exe", "  16 trace.pl", "   8 tracehosts",
"1160 trace.041409.exe", "1160 trace.orig.exe",
);

# Initial spaces in column 1 don't sort the same as...
my @sorted = fieldsort( ['1n'], @data);
print STDERR "First sorted DUMP:\n", Dumper(\@sorted), "\n";

my @data2 = grep s/^/1 /, @data;

# ...initial spaces in column 2!
@sorted = fieldsort( ['2n'], @data2);
print STDERR "Second sorted DUMP:\n", Dumper(\@sorted), "\n";
[download]

If you look in make_fieldsort() sub in the Sort::Fields code, you'll see the nested map commands. I'm just getting comfortable with map, but this nested one is really throwing me for a loop (heh). I just can't seem to come up with the right solution here.

Any help for a poor, confused, I-only-seem-to-be-able-to-understand-non-nested-map-commands type person?

Thanks

-Craig