AK AL AR AZ CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI IA ID IL IN KS
KT KY LA MA MD ME MI MN MO MS MT NC ND NE NH NJ NM
NV NY OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VA VT WA WI WV
WY
[download]

sub state {
grep$_[0]eq$_,'AKALARAZCACOCTDCDEFLGAHIIAIDILINKSKTKYLAMAMDMEMIMNMOMSM
+TNCNDNENHNJNMNVNYOHOKORPARISCSDTNTXUTVAVTWAWIWVWY'=~/../g
}
[download]

124 chars, using that set :)

sub state {
  pop=~/^(A[KLRZ]|C[AOT]|D[CE]|FL|GA|HI|I[ADLN]|K[STY]|LA|M[ADEINOST]|
+N[CDEHJMVY]|O[HKR]|PA|RI|S[CD]|T[NX]|UT|V[AT]|W[AIVY])$/
}
[download]

   MeowChow                                   
               s aamecha.s a..a\u$&owag.print

Your subroutine will accept "AK\n" as a state. Fixing that takes it to 125. But I can beat that with the following 122 character solution (which is what I was trying to figure out when I posted my first):

sub state{
$_[0]=~/^\w\w\z/&&grep/$_[0]/,'WVTNHINMSCORIDCAKSDE WIALAR MNCTX NVAZ'
+,'FLGAILKTKYMAMDMEMIMOMTNDNENJNYOHOKPAUTWAWY'=~/../g
}
[download]

OTOH I can improve your idea down to 119:

sub state {
pop=~/^([CGILPVW]A|[CKUV]T|[HRW]I|A[KLRZ]|CO|DC|DE|FL|I[DLN]|KS|KY|M[A
+DEINOST]|N[CDEHJMVY]|O[HKR]|SC|SD|TN|TX|WV|WY)\z/
}
[download]

And 2 characters less by group the first letters too:

sub state {
    pop=~/^(A[KLRZ]|C[AOT]|D[CE]|I[ADLN]|K[STY]|M[ADEINOST]|N[CDEHJMVY
+]|O[HKR]|S[CD]|T[NX]|V[AT]|[GLP]A|[HR]I|FL|UT|W[AIVY])$/
}
[download]

--bwana147

But the match isn't just on the names, but also on the abutment of names. I think you will get some false positives Eg. 'ZC' and 'OC' etc...

Have fun,
Carl Forde

Not so, the regex returns matches in pairs, ie:

@list = 'foobarbazo' =~ /../g;  # sets @list to ('fo','ob','ar','ba','
+zo')
[download]

   MeowChow                                   
               s aamecha.s a..a\u$&owag.print

Hmm, that's indeed 52 names. 50 states plus DC plus what?

KT.

Kentucky is supposed to be KY, but that list was pulled from a mapping that had to account for several mistakes. Sorry. (Similarly Quebec is PQ, but is often mistakenly written as QC.)

BTW the US state abbreviations also include GU, PR and VI.

or just 52 states

uh.. fifty-howmany? last i heard, the U.S. only had 50 states and one district.

update: re: tilly's list:
uh... 'KT'? since when is Kentucky Tavern whiskey its own state?

The lists being used don't include any of our possestions or the overseas military 'states'.

--SparkeyG