my $s1='TCGAGTGGCCATGAACGTGCCAATTG'; my $s2='ATGATCCTG'; ($s1,$s2) = ($s2,$s1) if length($s1) > length($s2); my $loc = index $s2, $s1; if ($loc<0) { print "String not found!\n"; } else { print "String found at location $loc\n"; }