Another approach, with a 'figure of merit': 

>perl -wMstrict -le
"use Text::LevenshteinXS qw(distance);
 ;;;;
 my $sample = 'A-E-H-L';
 ;;
 my @options = qw(
   A-B-F-G-H-K-M  A-E-G-H-L  A-C-E-G-H-J-L
   B-F-H-K  A-B-F-G-H-K-L  C-H   A-F-H  H-A-F
   L-H-E-A  A  A-E  X-A-X  X-A-E-X  L  A-L  X-A-L-X
   W-X-Y-Z  Z  Y-Z
   );
 ;;;;
 my @interesting = $sample =~ m{ \w }xmsg;
 my $mask = join '', @interesting;
 my ($dull)    = map qr{[^$_]}xms, join '',   @interesting;
 my ($ordered) = map qr{$_?}xms,   join '? ', @interesting;
 ;;;;
 for my $option (@options) {
   (my $primary = $option) =~ s{ $dull }{}xmsg;
   my ($sequence) = $primary =~ m{ ($ordered)? }xms;
   my $dist = distance $mask, $sequence;
   my $percent = 100 * (1 - ($dist / length $mask));
   printf qq{%-16s -> %-6s -> %3.0f%% \n},
          qq{'$option'}, qq{'$sequence'}, $percent;
   }
"
'A-B-F-G-H-K-M'  -> 'AH'   ->  50%
'A-E-G-H-L'      -> 'AEHL' -> 100%
'A-C-E-G-H-J-L'  -> 'AEHL' -> 100%
'B-F-H-K'        -> 'H'    ->  25%
'A-B-F-G-H-K-L'  -> 'AHL'  ->  75%
'C-H'            -> 'H'    ->  25%
'A-F-H'          -> 'AH'   ->  50%
'H-A-F'          -> 'H'    ->  25%
'L-H-E-A'        -> 'L'    ->  25%
'A'              -> 'A'    ->  25%
'A-E'            -> 'AE'   ->  50%
'X-A-X'          -> 'A'    ->  25%
'X-A-E-X'        -> 'AE'   ->  50%
'L'              -> 'L'    ->  25%
'A-L'            -> 'AL'   ->  50%
'X-A-L-X'        -> 'AL'   ->  50%
'W-X-Y-Z'        -> ''     ->   0%
'Z'              -> ''     ->   0%
'Y-Z'            -> ''     ->   0%

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In reply to Re: Pattern Matching with a Selected Sub-String by AnomalousMonk
in thread Pattern Matching with a Selected Sub-String by ozboomer

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