if (/$hit[0]/ || /$strike[1]/) {

##</code><code>##

 
 	if (/$hit[0] && /$strike[1]/) {

##</code><code>##

 
 	1028804576 fred@yahoo.com fred mother

##</code><code>##

 
 	1028804571 mum@yahoo mother fred	# This would also match, and would be found earlier
#                        ^^^^^^ ^^^^
 	1028804572 wilfred@hotmail wilf mother	# This would also match and be found earlier
#                 ^^^^              ^^^^^^

##</code><code>##

 
 	if ( /$userid[ \t]+$password$/ ) { 
 	# [ \t]+ means one or more spaces or tabs ($/) means at the end of the line.

##</code><code>##

 
 	$userid = quotemeta $userid;
 	$password = quotemeta $password;
 	if ( /$userid[ \t]+$password$/ ) { 

##</code><code>##

 	if ( /\Q$userid\E[ \t]+\Q$password$\E/ ) { 

##</code><code>##

 
#! perl -w

 my $flag = 0;
 for (@raw_data) {
	 if ( defined $hit[0] and $hit[0]         # has a value that is non-null
       and  defined $strike[1] and $strike[1]      # ditto
       and /\Q$hit[0]\E[ \t]+\Q$strike[1]\E$/) {
		 print "Found it.";
		 $flag = 1;
		 last;
	 }
 }
 if (! $flag) { # didn't find it in the array
	 print "didnt find it";
 }