!/usr/local/bin/perl
$string="a student name is sa\nravanan. saravanan is studying 3rd standard.i am go with sara\nvanan";
$count = 0;
$string =~s/\n//g;     #removing \n
print "$string\n";


@array = split(" ", $string);      #making the string into individual list elements
foreach $element(@array){
        if($element=~/\bsaravanan\b/){
                $count++;
                }
        }
print "found: $count matches.\n";