#!/usr/bin/env perl use strict; use warnings; use 5.010; use Data::Dumper; my $choices = [ [ 'a', 'W', 'interupt', ], [ 'b', 'R', 'interrupt', ], [ 'c', 'W', 'innterupt', ], [ 'd', 'W', 'intterupt', ] ]; my $answer = 'd'; # As we know that the answer matches only one choice # and we have exactly one matching answer. my $chosen_answer = (grep { $_->[0] eq $answer } @$choices)[0]; say Dumper($chosen_answer);