Bob wrote: <=> should probably still work, because when evaluating a string as a number, Perl will evaluate up to the first character that doesn't look like part of a number. so "1234 x5" evalutates as the number 1234 (stops at the space char). *****
I didn't know that. What I did after reading this was change the keys from >somenumber xsomenumber to somenumber xsomenumber and used <=> rather than cmp. Then when printing I simply prefixed each key with >. So, it works, and thank you kindly, Bob. However, the following (example) is thrown to the screen for every key sorted: Argument "1315 x320" isn't numeric in sort at myxmlparser line 55, <IN> line 4475131. Is there a way to mask these messages? Would trapping it in an eval be what the doctor ordered? Thanks to everyone, and I will take a look at that Sort::Versions module Janek recommended also. cheers, nathanael "I think for my lunch tomorrow I'll make a tuna and pickle triangle bunwich." -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]