You have three basic options:
- Iterate through the array, checking each element in turn. Don't use this method if you'll need to scan the array more than once or twice.
- Use grep. Good option if you only want to check part of each element.
- Turn your array into a hash. Use this method if you'd otherwise be using option #1 often.
This is a Categorized Q&A, so see How to find out if X is an element in an array?. | [reply] |
Actually, I'm not sure that iterating through the array
is such a bad option, particularly if you're going to exit
the loop after you find an element. If you use grep,
you're going to look through all of the items in the array
no matter what; what if the first element in the array
matches, and you have 100 items? Then you're looking through
99 items when you don't need to. That's an exaggeration,
but the point is the same.
The hash option is a good one, although not if you're
actually looking through each item for regular expression
matches--are you? It seems like you could be from your
explanation, but I'm not absolutely sure that you are. In
that case, you probably can't use a hash...
meaning that, in my opinion, your best option is to
iterate through the array and check each element, then
exit the loop once you've found a matching element.
my $itemPart = "Group1]Item2";
my @items = (
'[x.Group1]Item1=Value1',
'[y.Group1]Item2=Value2',
'[z.Group1]Item3=Value3',
'[a.Group2]Item1=Value1',
'[b.Group2]Item2=Value2'
);
my $found_item;
for my $item (@items) {
# for each element, test if it contains $itemPart;
# we need to use \Q and \E to meta-quote $itemPart,
# in case it contains any regexp metacharacters
if ($item =~ /\Q$itemPart\E/o) {
$found_item = $item;
last;
}
}
# now check if we actually found an item;
# if we did, $found_item will be defined
if (defined $found_item) {
print $found_item, "\n";
}
else {
print "Not Found!\n";
}
It's possible, of course, that you want *all* items that
match in the array; in that case, use grep:
my @matching = grep /\Q$itemPart\E/o, @items;
| [reply]
[d/l]
[select] |
No, each element in the array will be unique. Iterating will work, I was thinking along the lines of grep, but don't know the ins and outs of it.
Your humble servant,
-Chuck
| [reply] |
@result = grep(/$testItem/, @items);
if(@result)
{
print "WE ARE GOLDEN!";
}
else
{
print "WE ARE ALL ALONE";
}
little_mistress@mainhall.com | [reply]
[d/l] |