Default Sorts The default sort order is ASCII @chars = sort 'e', 'b', 'a', 'd', 'c'; # @chars has ('a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e') This can sometimes give strange results @chars = sort 'E', 'b', 'a', 'D', 'c'; # @chars has ('D', 'E', 'a', 'b', 'c') @nums = sort 1 .. 10; # @nums has (1, 10, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)