If I understood you correctly, here's a quick way to match what's in an array:

my $switch = 'quick';
my @array = qw(the quick fox jumped over the lazy dog);
my %matches = map {$_,1} @array;
my $match = exists $matches{ $switch } ? 1 : 0;
print $match;
[download]

Note that this technique is only useful if you have many items to match. Otherwise, use grep:

my $match = grep { /$switch/ } @array;
[download]

With the latter, $match is set to zero if no match is found. Otherwise, it's set to one.

Cheers,
Ovid

Update: Rereading my response and I've concluded that I haven't had enough coffee. I wonder whose question I was answering? :)

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