my $tmp; my $swapped; for my $i (0..$#a-1) { $swapped=0; # looping over already-sorted items is not needed for (0..$#a-1-$i) { if ($a[$_+1] < $a[$_]) { $tmp=$a[$_]; $a[$_]=$a[$_+1]; $a[$_+1]=$tmp; $swapped=1; } } last unless $swapped; }