I have a script that generates an array containing server names. I also have a list of comments ("webserver",
"located in DMZ", etc...) about many of the servers. Then I loop through the array, match up the server name to
the comment and print the information. (The script is more complex, but this is the gist of it.)

Currently, I pass the server name to a subroutine that consists of consecutive if statements:

sub add_comment{
    my $x = shift (@_);
    my $y;
    $y = "Webserver"     if ($x =~ /server1/i);
    $y = "DMZ Server"    if ($x =~ /server2/i);
    $y = "Oracle Server" if ($x =~ /server3/i);
    return $y;
}

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This was an OK method when the server list was small, but now the server list is getting large. I want to
redesign this so I can separate the comment list from the actual script, and to hopefully minimize the number
of if statements. I was thinking of putting all of the comments into another file in the form of SERVER: COMMENT.
Then, while looping through the array, finding the comment associated to the server.

What's a decent way to search the file for the comment? grep()? Open the file into an array or hash?

In reply to Using a lookup table(?) by shandor

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