Why not use a list operator in this case? grep comes to mind, but especially first that is in the List::Util module (part of the Perl 5.8 distribution if memory serves). 

use List::Util qw( first );
if (defined(first {'abc' eq $_} qw( abc def ghi ))) {
    print "found 'abc'\n";
}

[download]

Hope this helps, -gjb-

Update: Thanks to diotalevi for pointing out issues with my solution. I agree with both: I suggested first for exactly his objection to grep and I modified the original code by adding defined to resolve his objection to find.

In reply to Re: matching strings... by gjb
in thread matching strings... by powerhouse

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