Sort::Versions allows easy sorting of mixed non-numeric and numeric strings, like the "version numbers" that many shared library systems and revision control packages use. This is quite useful if you are trying to deal with shared libraries. It can also be applied to applications that intersperse variable-width numeric fields within text. Other applications can undoubtedly be found. For an explanation of the algorithm, it's simplest to look at these examples: 1.1 < 1.2 1.1a < 1.2 1.1 < 1.1.1 1.1 < 1.1a 1.1.a < 1.1a 1 < a a < b 1 < 2 1 < 0002 1.5 < 1.06 WWW: https://metacpan.org/release/Sort-Versions