use strict; use warnings; use JSON; use constant KEY => 0; use constant VALUE => 1; my $json_string = <<'END_JSON'; { "regex" : { ".*/home/members/index.htm.*" : { "404" : { "reporting" : "1000", "paging" : "2000" } } } } END_JSON my @test_strings = qw( web/home/members/index.htm?garbage=bye /home/memberzzzz/index.htm?garbage=bye ); my $decoded_json = JSON->new->decode( $json_string ); # The regex is contained within a hash key. my $regex_string = (%{$decoded_json->{regex}})[KEY]; my $regex = qr/$regex_string/; foreach my $test_string ( @test_strings ) { if( $test_string =~ m/$regex/ ) { print "Bingo! [$test_string] matches the pattern '$regex_string'\n"; } else { print "Boo! [$test_string] doesn't match the pattern '$regex_string'\n"; } }