use 5.018; my $line = ' [Category("notestrecord")]'; my $pattern = qr/[Category("notestrecord")]/; if($line =~ /\s*$pattern/) #### >perl -e 'use 5.018; my $x=qr/a[bc]d/; say("|$_| matches |$x|: ",$_=~/$x/ ? "yes" : "no") for ( "abd","acd","abcd","a[bc]d" )' |abd| matches |(?^u:a[bc]d)|: yes |acd| matches |(?^u:a[bc]d)|: yes |abcd| matches |(?^u:a[bc]d)|: no |a[bc]d| matches |(?^u:a[bc]d)|: no > #### #!/usr/bin/perl -w use 5.018; # 1126143 my $line = ' [Category("notestrecord")]'; my $pattern = qr/["()Cacdegnorsty]/; if($line =~ /\s*$pattern/) { print "Matched |$pattern| in |$line|"; # vbars to show spaces (& lack of spaces) } else { print "No match!"; } =head OUTPUT: Matched |(?^u:[Category("notestrecord")])| in | [Category("notestrecord")]| =cut #### >perl 1126159-modified.pl Matched |(?^u:["()Cacdegnorsty])| in | [Category("notestrecord")]| >