use warnings; use strict; my $sref = \$string; foreach $string ( @array_of_strings ) { print $$sref; } $ perl sref_o.pl Global symbol "$string" requires explicit package name at sref_o.pl line 4. Global symbol "$string" requires explicit package name at sref_o.pl line 5. Global symbol "@array_of_strings" requires explicit package name at sref_o.pl line 5. Execution of sref_o.pl aborted due to compilation errors.