use strict;
use warnings;
#   create alternation
my @list;
while (<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    push @list, $_;
}
my $regex = '^(' . join('|', map {quotemeta} @list) . ')$';
my $s = 'huey';
print "regex = $regex\n";
print "match:\t$1\n" if $s =~ m/$regex/;
__DATA__
huey
de|wey
louie

##</code><code>##

# perl test.pl
regex = ^(huey|de\|wey|louie)$
match:  huey