As much as I like a(some) nice %hash, I also like a good switch for clarification, it beats those if'n'else's Check out perlman:perlsyn and How do I create a switch or case statement? for more clarification.

$cat = 'ata';
SWITCH: for ($cat) # make $_ = $cat, you could do it by hand
{
    # syntaxt
    # whatever test on $_ && do { $this = 'if test passed'; last;};
    (length $_ > 1) && do { die "\$cat must be one letter not: `$cat'"
+; last;};
    /t/ && do { $catfile = "notitec.html"; last; };
    /a/ && do { $catfile = "notiagro.html"; last; };
    /d/ && do { $catfile = "notideportes.html"; last; };
    /h/ && do { $catfile = "notihogar.html"; last; };
    /r/ && do { $catfile = "notirecrea.html"; last; };
    /s/ && do { $catfile = "notisociales.html"; last; };
    die "unknown value for \$cat: `$cat'";
    # could just as easily be the default value
}
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P.S. Are you a sadist?(no -w strict, you must -w strict)

update: I agree tilly, not that i'd dare disagree with you ;). I feel <10 and not gonna expand, is a good time to use one.

 
___crazyinsomniac_______________________________________
Disclaimer: Don't blame. It came from inside the void
perl -e "$q=$_;map({chr unpack qq;H*;,$_}split(q;;,q*H*));print;$q/$q;"