diff --git a/SpreadSheetPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/SpreadSheetPlugin/Calc.pm b/SpreadSheetPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/SpreadSheetPlugin/Calc.pm
index 0fd11f1b2..d86256838 100644
--- a/SpreadSheetPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/SpreadSheetPlugin/Calc.pm
+++ b/SpreadSheetPlugin/lib/Foswiki/Plugins/SpreadSheetPlugin/Calc.pm
@@ -1730,19 +1730,21 @@ sub _safeEvalPerl {
     # keep only numbers and operators
     $theText =~ s/[^\!\<\=\>\-\+\*\/\%0-9e\.\(\)]*//g;
 
-    # disable glob for security reasons
-    $theText =~ s/^([\(\s]*)\<+/$1/g;
-    $theText =~ s/\>+([\s\)]*)$/$1/g;
-    $theText =~ s/\<\s*\>/ /g;
-
     # remove leading 0s to defuse interpretation of numbers as octals
     $theText =~ s/(^|[^\.])\b0+(?=[0-9])/$1/g;
 
     # remove "e"-s unless in expression such as "123e-4"
     $theText =~ s/(^|[^0-9])e/$1/g;
     $theText =~ /(.*)/;
-    $theText = $1;    # untainted variable
+    $theText = $1;                               # untainted variable
+
+    # disable glob for security reasons
+    $theText =~ s/^([\(\s]*)\<+/$1/g;
+    $theText =~ s/\>+([\s\)]*)$/$1/g;
+    $theText =~ s/\<\s*\>/ /g;
+
     return "" unless defined($theText);
+
     local $SIG{__DIE__} =
       sub { Foswiki::Func::writeDebug( $_[0] ); warn $_[0] };
     my $result = eval $theText;