couldnt you use grep to do this ?

#!/usr/bin/perl -w 
# 
# quick test to match an item in an array


use strict;

my $match = shift ;
my @arr = qw( 2 3 4 5 6 7 foo foo12 12foo 1foo1)  ;

print "match \n" if ( grep(/\b$match\b/, @arr) )  ;
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1 as input will not match
foo as input will not match
2 as input matches!

works for me.. is this a bad way to go about it ?
my regex may not be optimal. regex is not my strong point. I just got the book on it. It's next after "Data Munging with perl"