$byte = 0; $byte |= 1 if $obj->{organization} =~ /\S/; $byte |= 1<<1 if $obj->{foo} =~ /\S/; $byte |= 1<<2 if $obj->{bar} =~ /\S/; ... $byte |= 1<<7 if $obj->{report} =~ /\S/; # Here are your checks, rewritten as bitmasks if ($byte & 1<<7 and not $byte & 7<<1) { # do more checks against database } elsif (not $byte & 15<<4 and $byte & 1<<3 and not $byte & 3) { # do other checks against database } else { # produce error message }