$ perl -Mstrict -w my @arr = ( 'bla', '((S1B1_SY == 2) || (S1B2_SY == 2) || (S2B1_SY == 2) || (S3B1_SY == 2) ||K1_SC)', ); for ( @arr ) { if ( m/(.*<\/SW-SYSCOND>)/gi ) { print "yes\n"; } else { print "no\n"; } } ^D no yes