#!/usr/bin/env perl use strict; use warnings; my @lines = ("MyName='Custom'\n", "MyName!='Custom'\n"); my $re = qr{MyName='Custom'}; for my $line (@lines) { if ($line =~ $re) { print "MATCH: $line"; } else { print "NO MATCH: $line"; } } #### MATCH: MyName='Custom' NO MATCH: MyName!='Custom'