my @data = qw(K-2-D-1A K-2-D-2A K-2-D-10A); my @sorted = map { $_->[0] } sort { $a->[1] cmp $b->[1] } map { [$_, normalize_digits($_) ] } @data; sub normalize_digits { my ($key) = @_; $key =~ s/(\d+)/sprintf("%03d", $1)/eg; return $key; # thanks, ikegami }