I think we're actually on the same page here. In my mind, $color is "this thing" and $_ is e.g. "blue".

But "for" topicalizes. $_ is the topic. $_ is more variable than $color, $_ is the thing.

for (qw/green blue red/) {
    if ($color eq $_) { ... }
}

for each of green, blue and red:
    if the color is it, do something
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for (qw/green blue red/) {
    if ($_ eq $color) { ... }
}

for each of green, blue and red:
    if it is the color, do something
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I read $_ as "the thing" or "it". How do you read $_?

Juerd
- http://juerd.nl/
- spamcollector_perlmonks@juerd.nl (do not use).

I read $_ as "the thing" or "it". How do you read $_?

The original poster wanted this:

if ($color eq "blue || $color eq "red" || $color eq "green")
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My second post essentially stated ...

if ($color eq $_)
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... and dynamically replaced $_ with "blue", "red", or "green". Thus to me, $_ eq $color is like stating ...

if ("blue eq $color || "red" eq $color || "green" eq $color)
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... which isn't intuitive.

-Matt