First stab:

for my $file (  glob( "$somedir/example*.txt" )  ) {

But if you also have files like "examplebroken.txt", then you'll find too many. So you can refine that. I'll assume you have things like "example3.3.1.2.txt" but not "example-2.45e11.txt":

for my $file (  
    grep m#/example(\d+\.)+txt$#,
    glob( "$somedir/example*.txt" )
) {
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But I'd stick with your code if you are on an old version of Perl where glob is the sucking death (that is, where it calls /bin/csh to do its work).

If you are using leading-edge Perl, then you can use File::Spec instead of blithely pasting $somedir and exmample*.txt together with a "/".

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")