my %list_o_num = map { if(exists $list_o_num{$_}) { $list_o_num{$_}++ } else { $_ => 1 } } @list_o_num; #### my %list_o_num; $list_o_num{$_}++ for @list_o_num; my @true_top_3 = (sort { $b <=> $a } keys %list_o_num)[0..2]; print "T3: ", join(', ',@true_top_3), "\n"; #### #!/usr/bin/perl -wT use strict; my @list_o_num = qw(9 9 9 10 9 8 7 9 6); my %seen; my @true_top_3 = (sort { $b <=> $a } grep {!$seen{$_}++} @list_o_num)[0..2]; print "T3: ", join(', ',@true_top_3), "\n";