There are four problems with your code. First the $_ in the grep() is assigned to an arrayref, you need to dereference the ref to get at the first element of the inner array of your AoA:

my $GrepResult = grep($_->[0] =~ /$SearchStr/,@cdata);
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my ($GrepResult) = grep($_->[0] =~ /$SearchStr/,@cdata);
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my ($GrepResult) = grep($_->[0] =~ /^$SearchStr$/,@cdata);
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my ($GrepResult) = grep($_->[0] =~ /^\Q$SearchStr\E$/,@cdata);
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my ($GrepResult) = grep($_->[0] eq $SearchStr,@cdata);
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If you did need a regexp and were looking for something not exact there is one more thing to notice. qr//. If you do

my ($GrepResult) = grep($_->[0] =~ /^$SearchStr$/,@cdata);
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my $regexp = qr/^$SearchStr$/;
my ($GrepResult) = grep($_->[0] =~ $regexp,@cdata);
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ITYM:

my ($grepresult) = grep { $_->[0] eq $SearchStr } @cdata
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Update: Added parens as per lodin's comment, as if I hadn't bitten myself twice already today with that oversight ;-)

Beware of grep in scalar context. You need to use parentheses to create list context.

Nowadays, i.e. with Perl 5.10, you don't have to specify how to match in the grep. Using the ~~ operator you can let $SearchStr handle that.

my $SearchStr = 'foo.txt';
#my $SearchStr = qr/^foo_.*\.txt\z/i;
#my $SearchStr = [ 'foo.txt', 'bar.txt' ];

my ($grepresult) = grep { $_->[0] ~~ $SearchStr } @cdata;
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lodin

but then your dot would match any character

You could do \Q...\E to quote the metacharacter.

my ( $grepresult ) = grep { $_->[0] =~ m{\Q$SearchStr\E} } @cdata;
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Cheers,

JohnGG

Update: I also missed the scalar/list problem, parentheses added. lodin ++

The core module List::Util will be more efficient if there is a match since it will stop as soon as one is found.

use List::Util qw(first);

my $SearchStr = "test2.txt";
my $SearchResult = first { $_->[0] eq $SearchStr } @cdata;

print "Found file: $SearchResult->[0]\n";
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As I'm a bit puzzled your (larger) intent -- ie: why you would want to use a script for a job so easily done with ls text2.txt or dir text2.txt -- I'll guess you may wish to know the contents of the element rather than just a filename.

If that's the case, here's a tiny, incremental step, building on the above, to print the full content of the element (annonymous array) containing test2.txt:

If, instead, you wish to store the information for further processing, you can substitute an appropriate construct to hold @{$GrepResult}.

PS: your reference to "the way I am referencing @Config" is the kind of typo that can create confusion or lead to a sequence of off-track replies. Yes, I've inferred (correctly, one hopes) that you meant @cdata but sometimes typos or cut'n'paste errors can confound your hope of help. The preview button is best used both to the check formatting... and to proofread.

...of course, as anyone who's noted the number of "Update" notes in my posts will recognize, this is advice I need to practice more effectively, myself. :-)

Update :-( and I still missed a typo I've now had to correct. ....aaargh!