Use regex. For eg. 
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my $str = "is the best way to match which of two strings occurs first 
+in a text";

my $first = "two";
my $second = "match";

$str =~ m/($first|$second)/g;

print $1 if($1); # $1 will hold first matched value

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If it matches any string, the special variable '$1' will hold the first match.

In reply to Re: out of two strings which occurs first in a text by lamp
in thread out of two strings which occurs first in a text by Anonymous Monk

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