> Just a quick note; dont use $a and $b as named > variables.. they're 'special' (used by the cmp > operator) so to avoid ambiguity, use something > else/more descriptive... or use $c if it makes you happy =) Indeed, I meant to mention something about $a/$b myself. cmp isn't really relevant. $a and $b are sometimes used by Perl as globals that get aliased to some other values in your program. So, Perl will occasionally futz with the values of $a and $b, and, if you modify $a or $b, there's a chance that you will clobber some other value you care about. The simplest rule to follow is, don't use $a and $b outside of a sort sub or block. See perldoc -f sort for more.
