How can I test if a filename matching a pattern exists in Perl?

Question

Can I do something like this in Perl? Meaning pattern match on a file name and check whether it exists.

    if(-e "*.file")
    {
      <Do something> 
    }

I know the longer solution of asking system to list the files present; read it as a file and then infer whether file exists or not.

Answer 1

You can use glob to return an array of all files matching the pattern:

@files = glob("*.file");

foreach (@files) {
    // do something
}

If you simply want to know whether a file matching the pattern exists, you can skip the assignment:

if (glob("*.file")) {
    // At least one file matches "*.file"
}