my $chars = "abc"; foreach (qw/abc bca cab cba bac acb aab abbc acc/) { my %seen; my $pat = $_; $pat =~ s/([\Q$chars\E])/++$seen{$1}/gex; if ((grep {$_ == 1} values %seen) == length($chars)) { print "$_ matches\n"; } else{ print "$_ doesn't match\n"; } }