#!/usr/bin/env perl use strict; use warnings; use feature qw(say); my @strings = ( 'From: John Doe ', 'From: John Doe ', 'From: John Doe', ); foreach my $string (@strings) { if ($string =~ m/^From:\s+John\s+Doe(?!\s+)/) { say "BAD: $string" } else { say "GOOD: $string" } }