#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my @x =
    (
    ['aaaaa', 'bbbbb', 'ccccc', 'ddddd',],
    ['eeeee', 'fffff', 'ggggg', 'hhhhh',],
    ['iiiii', 'jjjjj', 'kkkkk', 'lllll',],
    );

for my $i (1 .. 1000)
    {
    for my $a (@x)
        {
        my $ifails = 0;
        for my $j (0 .. (scalar @$a) - 1 )
            {
            <get external data string for pattern matching here, put in $c>
            if ($c =~ /$a->[$j]/) { $ifails++; }
            }
        if ($ifails > 1) { want to go to outer loop here, and not process the next (and subsequent) row(s) }
        }
    }