On Wed, 15 Mar 2006, Mike Stok wrote: > Tangentially speaking you can use unpack and sort_by to do this kind of thing > if it suits the situation (admittedly there's not a sort_by!, but let's not > let that get in the way :-) > > sorted_basenames = basenames.sort_by { |name| > name.unpack('A4 x A3 x A7 x A2').values_at(1, 0, 2, 3) > } > > or the delightful > > sorted_basenames = basenames.sort_by { |name| name.unpack('x5 A3 X8 A4 x5 A7 > x A2') } > > This is just an excuse to expose unpack and sort_by to people, not a > suggestion that it's necessarily appropriate or better in this case. i actually like that. whether regexes or pack codes are more obtuse is definitely debatable - but that's pretty clean looking thanks for the tip. -a -- share your knowledge. it's a way to achieve immortality. - h.h. the 14th dali lama