#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

# but you really don't want to do this
# stick with a hash!

# here we have 3 vars, but what if if there's more than 3?
my ($step1,$step2,$step3);

while (<DATA>) {
    my $line = $_;
    chomp $line;
    my ($var,$val) = split / /, $line;
    eval "$var=$val";
}
# here we have 3 vars, but what if if there's more than 3?
print $step1 . "\n";
print $step2 . "\n";
print $step3 . "\n";

__DATA__
$step1 1
$step2 1
$step3 1