Thanks, but the power of the module is that it allows your to sort on any number of columns. For example:
first sort on substr($string, $foo0, $bar0), then
then sort on substr($string, $foo1, $bar1) , then
then sort on substr($string, $foo2, $bar2) , ... and so on.

If you take a look at sort, you see that you can do something like

sub deepsort {
  substr( $_[0], $p[0], $l[0]) cmp substr( $_[1], $p[0], $l[0] )
            ||
  substr( $_[0], $p[1], $l[1]) cmp substr( $_[1], $p[1], $l[1] )
            ||
....ad nauseum
}
@sorted = sort 'deepsort', @list;
[download]

Of course it's better to build the deepsort from an eval and map.....

Jeroen
"We are not alone"(FZ)