I have a big Hash list, the some of the keys are made up of the combination of regular expression pattern. For example :

%cat = (
    'C[AEIOU]NWAY' => 'AAA',
    '(BOSTON|CHICAGO)' => 'BBB',
    '(LAS VEGAS|NEVADA)' => 'CCC'
    '(DALLAS|AUSTIN)' => 'DDD'  
    '(NASHVILLE|M[AEIOU]MPHIS)' => 'EEE'    
);
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I would like to search the KEYS and compare to a $variable, and print the VALUE for the matched $variable.

For example, if the $variable = 'CHICAGO', then I would like to pull the corresponding value which is 'BBB'.

Could anyone give me some idea or suggestion?

Thank you...

William