grep EXPR, LIST
Evaluates the BLOCK or EXPR for each element of LIST (locally setting $_ to each element) and returns the list value consisting of those elements for which the expression evaluated to true.
So, in this case, grep takes a list and returns a list. 
my @list = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
my @result = grep $_ > 2, @list;
print "@result";

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3 4 5

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You could probably get away with something like 
if (exists $item_lookup{$name}){
  print qq{$name has $item_lookup{$name}};
else{
  print qq{$name is missing $item_lookup{$name};
}

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in your for loop.

In reply to Re: (Mis)Understanding <c>grep...eq $_<c> by wfsp
in thread (Mis)Understanding grep...eq $_ by ww

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