use Encode qw(encode decode); print encode('iso-8859-15',join(' + ',sort {lc $a cmp lc $b} ('Vertrag',decode('windows-1252','Übel'),decode('windows-1252','Ärger'),decode('windows-1252','Renée'),decode('windows-1252','Öl'),decode('windows-1252','ßig'),'Renee',decode('windows-1252','ärgerlich'))));