while() { chomp; $erg = b262b10($_); # scalar context is important! print $erg, "\n"; } # equivalent to # sub b262b10{()=a..lc pop} # but with explaining output sub b262b10{@_=a..lc pop; print join " ", @_, "\n";@_} __DATA__ A Z AA AZ BA ZZ AAA ZBA __END__ # without the debug-output: 1 26 27 52 53 702 703 17629