Re: How can I use a text file as a search string?

[perlfan]

If you are searching for literal strings, and don't *really* need regexs, then you could create a hash, where each name in the .txt file is one you're expecting. To search, you'd just use exists($hash{$name_to_check}) to see it was in your text file.

my @names_to_check = qw/ bob sue joe /;
my %validnames = ();
# build lookup
while(<>) {
  chomp;
  $validnames{$_}++; # also filters dups in *.txt
}
# check names
for (@names_to_check) {
  print "$_ is okay\n" if (exists($validnames{$_}));
}

The <> of course implies STDIN, so you'd have to redirect or pipe the contents of *.txt into the script at the commandline.