use strict; use warnings; my %prims =( "int" => 1, "char" => 1, "long" => 1, "double" => 1, "static" => 1 ); while(<>) { if($prims{$_}) { print "Found item $_\n"; } } #### ... my @prim = (("int","char","long","double","static"); my %prim = map { $_ => 1 } @prim; ...