Perl regular [removed]using a variable as a search string with Perl operator characters included)

Question

$text_to_search = \"example text with [foo] and more\";
$search_string = \"[foo]\";

if ($text_to_search =~ m/$search_string/)
    print \"wee\";

P

Answer 1

Use the quotemeta function:

$text_to_search = "example text with [foo] and more";
$search_string = quotemeta "[foo]";

print "wee" if ($text_to_search =~ /$search_string/);

Answer 2

You can use quotemeta (\Q \E) if your Perl is version 5.16 or later, but if below you can simply avoid using a regular expression at all.

For example, by using the index command:

if (index($text_to_search, $search_string) > -1) {
    print "wee";
}

Answer 3

Use \Q to autoescape any potentially problematic characters in your variable.

if($text_to_search =~ m/\Q$search_string/) print "wee";