check value exists in perl array and substring

Question

I have an array with original data and a column in excel file, I need to compare the excel column with the array and find the match.

I need is walk should match with walk with me and so on, Is there any way I can do it.

can i compare individual string with complete array i am comparing excel row with array using the following way description variable contains string to match with @steps_name array

my @steps_name=("1-2 Steps", "5-7 Steps", "8-10 Steps", "11-15 Steps");

foreach $sheet (@{$workbook->{Worksheet}}) {

       foreach $col ($sheet->{MinCol} .. $sheet->{MaxCol})
       {          
                if ($sheet->{Cells}[0][$col]->{Val} eq "DESCRIPTION") 
               {
                    $description = $col;                    
               }                 
       }



    foreach $row ($sheet->{MinRow}+1 .. 50) 
     {         
       my $db_description = $sheet->{Cells}[$row][$description]->{Val};

        my $needle_regex = quotemeta $db_description;    

     if (grep { /(?i)\Q$db_description\E/ } @steps_name) 
                {
           print "<br><h1>Element '$db_description' found </h1></br>" ;
                }

                else
                {
                    print "<br>$db_description not found </br>"
                }

      }
    }

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Assigning a list to a scalar ($db_description) doesn't make any sense. Also, eq tests for string equality, and none of the strings you're comparing will ever be equal. You probably want to use a regular expression to see if your needles match part of your haystacks:

use strict;
use warnings;

my @needles   = ("walk", "run", "dance", "catch");
my @haystacks = ("walk with me", "come and run", "catch the ball");

for my $needle (@needles) {
    my $found;

    for my $haystack (@haystacks) {
        if ($haystack =~ /\Q$needle\E/) {
            print "Found [$needle] in [$haystack]\n";
            $found++;
        }
    }

    if (!$found) {
        print "Couldn't find [$needle] anywhere!\n";
    }
}

This could be shortened to:

for my $needle (@needles) {
    if (grep { /\Q$needle\E/ } @haystacks) {
        print "Found [$needle]\n";
    } else {
        print "Couldn't find [$needle] anywhere!\n";
    }
}