use strict; my @vector = qw( 27 32 46 5 102 76 ); my @order = sort{ $vector[ $a ] <=> $vector[ $b ] } 0 .. $#vector; my $i = 1; my @order_it; foreach (@order) { $order_it[$_] = $i++; } print join(' ',@order_it),"\n"; print "@vector[ @order_it ]\n"; __END__ P:\test>junk 2 3 4 1 6 5 Use of uninitialized value in join or string at P:\test\junk.pl line 11. 46 5 102 32 76