As was already pointed out, this if ($var =~ /^[qw(Smith Jones Schmidtz)]/) doesn't work as it just creates a character class equivalent to [SmithJonescdz] - which just compares to the first character of $var. Two solutions: 

my @names = qw(Smith Jones Schmidtz);
my $pattern = join '|', @names;

if ($var =~ /^(?:$pattern)/)

# or quicker
if ($var =~ /^Smith/ || $var =~ /^Jones/ || $var =~ /^Schmidtz/)

[download]

-- Hofmator

In reply to Re4: Is there an InString-like function? by Hofmator
in thread Is there an InString-like function? by Anonymous Monk

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