You're trying to compare a scalar to an array slice (er... actually, it's not even an array slice). You have to supply just one index for the array, you can't supply several to get Perl to implicitly loop on them for you. You have to explicitly loop through the array elements, comparing each one to the input.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

print "What is your insult? ";
chomp(my $input = <>);

my @matching = qw/disk duck deck/;

for (@matching) {
    if ($input eq $_) {die "bastard\n"};
}
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(Updated first paragraph to be more verbose^Wclear.)

bbfu
Seasons don't fear The Reaper.
Nor do the wind, the sun, and the rain.
We can be like they are.

die "bastard\n" if grep $input eq $_, @matching;
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   MeowChow                                   
               s aamecha.s a..a\u$&owag.print

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Quantum::Superpositions;

print "What is your insult? ";
chomp (my $input = <>);

my @matching = qw/disk duck deck/;
die if ($input eq any(@matching)); # could also use @matching[0..2]
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Short answer is, use a hash for that :)

longer answer is that the array doesn't know how to iterate over 0..2 it just wants to return the specified value which it notices isn't numeric, to do what you were trying to do you would have to use a loop... see the short answer :)

--
my $chainsaw = 'Perl';

$^W = 1;
$index = 0..2; # this is your problem - it's initially undef
@matching = qw(disk duck deck);
$result = $matching[$index]; # and here's your problem, $matching[unde
+f]!
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-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

use strict;

print "What is your insult? ";
chomp(my $input = <>);

my @matching = qw/disk duck deck/;

if ($input eq $matching[0||1||2]) {die "bastard\n"};
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if ($input eq $matching[0||1||2]) {die "bastard\n"};
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which means exactly the same as:

if ($input eq $matching[1]) {die "bastard\n"};
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Were you expecting it to mean something different, especially since you said it "works"? In what manner did you mean "works"?

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker

ahh - I only tested it with $matching[1]. Oops. /me goes red!

The lesson is... test, test, test - especially if you do something like I did that you've never seen anyone else do (usually for good reason!)

$ perldoc perldoc

Try this instead:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

print "What is your insult? ";
chomp(my $input = <>);

my @matching = qw/disk duck deck/;

foreach $j (@matching) {
    die "bastard\n" if($input =~ /$j/);
}
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--
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.keenspace.com";

You could compile them into a regexp with

    my $re = do { local $"='|'; qr/^(?:@matching)$/ };
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--
g r i n d e r

I have a similar problem ....

I get the warning message "Argument "n" isn't numeric in array element at program.pl line 356."

My code looks like this:

foreach $qbase (@query_sequence [$q_start .. $q_end])
    {
        if ($qbase eq ("n"||"N") && $subj_sequence[$qbase] ne ("n"||"N
+"))
        {
            ++$ncount;    
        }
    }

    foreach $sbase (@subj_sequence [$s_start .. $s_end])
    {
        if ($sbase eq ("n"||"N") && $query_sequence[$sbase] ne ("n"||"
+N"))
        {
            ++$ncount;
        }
    }
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My code is intended to mean:
for each position between a start and end position in an array, if the element at that position is an 'n', and the element at the same position in another array is not an n, ++count. $q_start, $q_end, $s_start, $s_end are numbers. @query_sequence and @subj_sequence are arrays of letters. It works ok apart from the warning! Why does this happen and how do I fix it?

Many thanks for your help

Marinegirl x

Because $qbase is a letter, $query_sequence[$qbase] is not valid. To fix it change to this

foreach $qbase ($q_start .. $q_end)
# qbase is now a number
{
  if ( ($query_sequence[$qbase] =~ /[nN]/) && ($subj_sequence[$qbase] 
+!~ /[nN]/) )
  {
    ++$ncount;    
  }
}
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poj

I'd keep them separate in case ($#qbase != $#sbase), and since you're not doing anything else with the index, just loop through them all...

foreach $qbase ( @qbase ) {
  if ( uc($qbase) eq 'N' ) {
    ++$ncount;
  }
}
foreach $sbase ( @sbase ) {
  if ( uc($sbase) eq 'N' ) {
    ++$ncount;
  }
}
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or more concisely...

  do { $ncount++ if /n/i } foreach ( @qbase, @sbase );
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Update: disregard, read the OP wrong

Update: re-read, and the answer doesn't take into account if subj_sequence is n and query is not...

foreach my $idx ( 1..$#query_sequence ) {
  if ( $query_sequence[$idx] =~ /n/i && $subj_sequence[$idx] !~ /n/i )
+ {
    $ncount++;
  } elsif ( $subj_sequence[$idx] =~ /n/i && $query_sequence[$idx] !~ /
+n/i ) {
    $ncount++;
  }
}
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(Note that it is assumed that $#query_sequence = $#subj_sequence)

Update: again..

$ncount = grep { ($qbase[$_] =~ /n/i && $sbase[$_] !~ /n/i) || ($qbase
+[$_] !~ /n/i && $sbase[$_] =~ /n/i) } 1..$#qbase;
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