I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to do but if you're only trying to validate parameters, something like the following would work:

use strict;
use warnings;

my %valid = (
      peace => 0,
      child => 1,
      free =>  2,
      love =>  3,
      enjoy => 4
);

my @test = qw(freely enjoy love);
my @parms;

for my $test (@test) {
   if (exists $valid{$test}) {
      push (@parms, $test);
   } else {
      print "\n\nSkipping bad argument '$test'!!!\n\n";
   }
}


print "\n\nValid parms:\n";
print "   ", pack('A8',$_), ": position: $valid{$_}\n" for @parms;
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Update: After rereading a few times, I realize that the poster needs what chromatic suggested. /me finishes coffee before responding to anymore posts.

--Jim