remove part of string in Perl

Question

my $input1 = "hours";
my $input2 = "Total hours";
my ($matching_key) = grep { /$input2/ } $input1;
print "Matching key :: $matching_key";

What I want is to strip "Total" from $input2 and assign it back to input2 so my grep line will match. how can I strip that word ?

Answer 1

If I'm understanding your question correctly, you want

$input2 =~ s/Total //;

However, you're also misusing grep(); it returns an array of elements in its second parameter (which should also be a list) which match the pattern given in the first parameter. While it will in fact return "hours" in scalar context they way you're using it, this is pretty much coincidental.

Answer 2

I am not sure that I understand fully your question, anyway you can strip Total like this:

$input2 =~ s/Total //;

after this $input2 will have the value "hours".

I don't understand fully the "assign it back to input2 so my grep line will match" part...