Let me try to express the problem better, i did indeed confuse by including too much. Being less confused myself this morning, i have eliminated all except what i really need in the following and resolved it:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
my @updateloc1 = ("LakeOsouth/stuf", "LakeOeast/stuf", "LakeO2/stuf", 
+"LakeO/stuf");
my @texlines = ("LakeOsouth", "LakeOeast", "LakeO2", "LakeO");
for my $lin (@texlines){
    for my $update (@updateloc1){
        if ($update =~ /$lin/){
            print "The table column $lin matches the directory name $u
+pdate, so now do stuf in the subdir\n";
}    }    }
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The above code works, except that when it gets to table column $lin = LakeO it matches all the members in updateloc1, so my struggle has been to make $lin match $update exactly to the forward slash. Well, after re-arranging the loops, the solution is simple: $update =~ /$lin\//. Should have taken a break much sooner.