# this is what your first loop does:
# it checks the input and brings it into a certain order
sub filter_by_array {
    my ($data,$filter) @_;

    my $valid = join '|', map quotemeta, @$filter;
    $valid = qr/$valid/;

    my %position = do {
        my $i=0;
        map {($_=>$i++)} @$filter
    }

    my @result = ();

    foreach( @$data ){
       $result->[ $position{ $_ } ] = $_ if /$valid/
    }

    @result
}

# this is your second piece of code
# it checks if the second array completely equals
# the corresponding leading elements of the first
# array.
sub array_pattern {
    my ($l,$r) = @_;
    @$l >= @$r or return;
    for( 0.. @$r-q ){
       $l->[$_] eq $r->[$_] or return;
    }
}

# validate the input into a certain order
my @validated = filter_by_array( \@ARGV ,
         [qw(peace child free love enjoy)]
);

# the data you get from somehwere
my @car = from_wherever_youlike();

# verify that @car at has all elements of @validated
# at its beginning

print array_pattern( \@car , \@validated ) ?
  'FOUND!' : 'NOT found!' , "\n";

[download]

I'm all the time wondering: what do you need this for. It doesn't make much sense (to me).

--
http://fruiture.de

In reply to Re: terrible code about array matching... by fruiture
in thread terrible code about array matching... by Discipulus

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