$n = reverse scalar sprintf("%2.4f",$n);
$n =~ s/^0+//g;
$n = reverse scalar $n;
$n =~ s/\.$//g;
[download]

UPDATE: aha!

$n = reverse scalar sprintf("%2.4f",$n);
$n =~ s/^0+\.?//g;
$n = reverse scalar $n;
[download]

And jmcnamara++ ... that's the best solution posted (IMHO) since you already are using sprintf.

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
B--B--B--B--B--B--B--B--
H---H---H---H---H---H---
(the triplet paradiddle with high-hat)

An even more fun version:

$n = reverse scalar sprintf("%2.4f",$n);
$n =~ s/\G0//g;
$n = reverse scalar $n;
[download]

(Hats off to merlyn's version of this in Effective Perl Programming!)

This brings up a very good point - oftentimes it's better, both coding- and performance-wise, to use reverse when handling strings than it is to try and work from the end. For example, when trying to handle group separators locale-independently for formatting numbers, the easiest way is to:

my $g = ","; # Could be ' ' or '.' in other locales
my $n = 1234567890;

$n = reverse $n;
$n =~ s/(\d{3})/\1$g/g;
$n = reverse $n;
[download]

Much better than the options without reverse.

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.