my @a = qw(a b c); my $var = \$a[1]; my $othervar = $$var; $othervar = 'x'; $$var = 7; print join ' ', $othervar, $$var, @a, "\n"; $a[1] = 'q'; print join ' ', $othervar, $$var, @a, "\n" #### x 7 a 7 c x q a q c