my $l_Name_ref; for (qw/HELLO PERL MONKS/) { /(.+)/; $l_Name_ref = \$1; if (defined($$l_Name_ref)) { print STDERR "1 $$l_Name_ref\n" if (defined($$l_Name_ref)); print STDERR "2 $l_Name_ref\n"; if ($$l_Name_ref =~ /^[a-zA-Z]\w+$/) { print STDERR "3 $l_Name_ref\n"; print STDERR "4 $$l_Name_ref\n"; } } }