note AnomalousMonk <p> Further to [id://1005414|previous post]: A solution using a regex per OP request. No hashes. Note that the function now takes <i>two strings,</I> not a string and a hash. Tested, works. </P> <c> sub scrabblicious { my ($word, # word to test for scrabble match to tray of letters $tray, # string with 'tray' of letters to select from ) = @_; return if not length $word; # special case: empty string $tray =~ s/$_//xms or return for map quotemeta, split '', $word; return 1; } </C> <p> <b>Update:</B> Instead of <br> <c> $tray =~ s/$_//xms or return for map quotemeta, split '', $word;</c> <br> using <br> <c> $tray =~ s/\Q$_\E//xms or return for split '', $word;</c> <br> might be slightly faster because it avoids having <c> map quotemeta </C> build another intermediate array. (Tested.) </P> 1005402 1005402