!/usr/bin/perl -w open MISS, "miss" or die "can't open $!"; my $miss=; close MISS; my %clocks=( "10" => 0, "10.20.20.10" => 0, "10.20.47.13" => 0, "10.20.46.37" => 0, ); chomp $miss; # $miss="10.20.47.13"; print "$miss\n"; if (exists($clocks{$miss})){ print "Yup it's there\n"; }