my @array = ("foo {abc123}\n", "bar {def456}\n", "baz {ghi789}\n"); my @array2 = ("foo", "bar", "quux"); foreach my $i (@array) { chomp $i; $regex .= join "|", @array2; if ($i =~ m/$regex/) { print "$i is in array2\n"; next; } # Do something with $i now. }