kevyt has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am trying to search a scalar for a word that is in another scalar and I can't seem to get it to work. I found other postings but I could not get anything to work. For example. If the first variable has "Plumbing" and a second variable has "ABC Plumbing", I want to know if the variable holding "ABC Plumbing" has the word "Plumbing" in it. I have something like this but it is not working. 
$sic = 1711;
$hash{$sic}{BUS} = 'Plumbing';   # A keyword in a business name
$hash{$sic}{CAT} = 'Plumbing';   # Category

$str[1] = 'Elite Plumbing';

foreach $sic (keys %hash){
  # if the word in $hash{$sic}{BUS} is found in $str[1],
  # I want to know.

  # if ($hash{$sic}{BUS} =~ /$str[1]/) # This wont work.
  if (grep { $hash{$sic}{BUS} == $_ } $str[1]  ){ # Nope 
     #  $str[38] = $hash{$sic}{CAT};
     #  $str[39] = $hash{$sic}{BUS};
     print "Found one.  Bus name is $str[1] and cat is " . $hash{$sic}
+{CAT} . " and sic is " . $str[39] ."\n";
  }
}

[download]
I know that it has to be simple but I can't figure it out. Can someone tell me what I am missing? Since I have posted this, I noticed that I am using grep wrong. Thanks Kevin

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Re: searching a scalar for a word. Should I use grep?
by bobf (Monsignor) on Jun 23, 2007 at 04:12 UTC

    You've got the regex backwards - the text should be on the left and the pattern ('Plumbing') should be on the right: $str[1] =~ /$hash{$sic}{BUS}/;

    index may be a faster alternative if you're looking for simple strings. See the examples below. 

    use strict;
use warnings;

my $substr = 'Plumbing';
my $string = 'ABC Plumbing';

my $pos = index( $string, $substr );

if( $pos )
{
    print "Found [$substr] in [$string] at $pos\n";
}
else
{
    print "[$substr] was not found in [$string]\n";
}

if( $string =~ m/$substr/ )
{
    print "Matched [$substr] in [$string]\n";
}
else
{
    print "[$substr] was not found in [$string]\n";
}

    [download]
    Output: 
    Found [Plumbing] in [ABC Plumbing] at 4
Matched [Plumbing] in [ABC Plumbing]

    [download]

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      Wow... thanks a bunch!!!! This worked !!!
      Thanks for your very clear example.
      I placed the prints on 2 - 3 lines for readability.
      foreach $sic (keys %hash){
  next if !$hash{$sic}{BUS};
  print "str1 = $str[1] sic= $sic, cat= $hash{$sic}{CAT}
      bus= $hash{$sic}{BUS}\n";
  if ( $str[1] =~  m/$hash{$sic}{BUS}/){
     $str[38] = $hash{$sic}{CAT};
     $str[39] = $sic;
     print "Found one.  Bus name is $str[1] and cat 
         is " . $hash{$sic}{CAT} . " and sic is " . 
          $str[39] ."\n\n\n";
  }
}

      [download]

      output:
      str1 = 'Domino''s Pizza' sic= 5812, cat= Pizza restaurants bus= Pizza
Found one.  Bus name is 'Domino''s Pizza' and cat is Pizza restaurants
+ and sic is 5812

      [download]

      Have a great weekend :)
      Kevin
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      Wow... thanks !!!! This will work !!! Have a great weekend :) Kevin
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Re: searching a scalar for a word. Should I use grep?
by GrandFather (Saint) on Jun 23, 2007 at 04:34 UTC 
    use strict;
use warnings;

my %hash = (1711 => {BUS => 'Plumbing', CAT => 'Plumbing'});
my @str = ('Elite Plumbing', 'Wonderfull Welding');

for my $key (keys %hash) {
    my @matches = grep {-1 < index $_, $hash{$key}{BUS}} @str;
    
    next unless @matches;
    print "Match for $hash{$key}{BUS} in:\n   ";
    print join "\n   ", @matches;
}

    [download]

    Prints:

    Match for Plumbing in:
   Elite Plumbing

    [download]
    DWIM is Perl's answer to Gödel
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