my @pats = qw[the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog]; my $str = "...."; my $matched = 1; foreach my $pat (@pats) { last unless $matched &&= $str =~ /$pat/; } #### my @pats = qw[the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog]; my $str = "...."; my $matched = !grep {$str !~ /$_/} @pats;