c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le "my @strings = ( 'SMS,SMS1,20190811', 'SMS,SMSh,20190811', 'SMS,SMSH,20190811', 'SMS,SMSx,20190811', 'SMS,SMSi,20190811', 'SMS,SMSX,20190811', 'SMS,SMSI,20190811', ); ;; for my $s (@strings) { my $ref_s = \$s; print qq{'$$ref_s' matches} if $$ref_s =~ /SMSi/i || $$ref_s =~ /SMSI/i || $$ref_s =~ /SMSh/i || $$ref_s =~ /SMSH/i || $$ref_s =~ /SMS1/ ; } " 'SMS,SMS1,20190811' matches 'SMS,SMSh,20190811' matches 'SMS,SMSH,20190811' matches 'SMS,SMSi,20190811' matches 'SMS,SMSI,20190811' matches