One of the strengths of PHP when it comes to arrays is considered to be the in_array function (http://php.net/in_array), this function takes two parameters; the array and the item to be searched in the array and then returns a boolean result whether the item exists in the array. Perl inherently lacks this functionality, even popular Perl modules like List::Util lack such a function/method.

As it was said by Plato once, “Necessity… the mother of invention.”, I required to check whether a name existed in an array, bored by using conventional method of iterating the array every time I need to check, I wrote a simple sub-routine to get the job done.

This sub-routine take two arguments, a reference to the array to be searched, and the item that needs to be searched. Simple enough the sub-routine works like magic, even my friend have found it very useful. I thought may be someone might find it useful, here’s it, take a look.

sub in_array
 {
     my ($arr,$search_for) = @_;
     my %items = map {$_ => 1} @$arr; # create a hash out of the array values
     return (exists($items{$search_for}))?1:0;
 }

Sample Usage

my @arr = ('Manu','Pradeep','Shency','Shabbir');

 sub in_array
 {
     my ($arr,$search_for) = @_;
     my %items = map {$_ => 1} @$arr;
     return (exists($items{$search_for}))?1:0;
 }

 if(in_array(\@arr,'Manu '))
 {
     print "Hurray! Manu you are in!!\n";
 }
 else
 {
     print "Ooops! Amlan you are out!!\n";
 }

Output :

 Hurray! Manu you are in!!