my @fools = qw(jester clown motley); my $fools = \@fools; The $fools variable now contains a reference to the @fools array. You can copy the values to another array by prepending it with the @ sign (the array sigil). my @copy_of_fools = @$fools; To access individual elements of the $fools array reference, you use the same syntax as you would to access the original array, but you use the dereferencing operator, ->, between the array name and the square brackets.