$match = 'Ba';
@array = ('Bad','Good','Whatever');

if (grep(/$match/, @array)) { print "Yippie!\n"; }
else { print "No Match\n"; }
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If you enclosed the variable $match in word boundaries as followed

grep(/\b$match\b/, @array)

It would no longer match do to the fact that the match must match the exact string passed

It would no longer match do to the fact that the match must match the exact string passed

But the  \b assertion does not require an "exact" match, as I understand the term, but rather the presence of a word boundary (based on the  \w character class). So you can have the following "exact" match with 'Ba':

c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"use List::MoreUtils qw(any);
 ;;
 my $match = 'Ba';
 my @array = ('Ba Ba Black Sheep');
 ;;
 print 'exact match?' if any { /\b$match\b/ } @array;
"
exact match?
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See Assertions.

---

Give a man a fish:  <%-(-(-(-<

You're right.

The better way to write it would probably be:



my $match = 'Ba';
my @array = ('Ba Ba Black Sheep');

if (grep(/^$match$/,@array)) {
    print 'exact match?';
}
else {
    print "No match\n";
}
[download]