At that point what you really want is a list structure instead (which is something I definitely would like to see, but that's way offtopic for this thread). Then you would have something like
Code:
listmake mylist
listadd mylist this
listadd mylist that
if ($listin(mylist, $3)) ...

which is far more powerful and useful in the long-run (not to mention all the other benefits of lists).

Of course at present the common way for handling these situations is to use
Code:
if ($istok(this that, $3, 32))

which is limited but still effective for most tasks. And still more readable IMO than trying to make an operator do it.

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