my @peeps = qw( Martin Sharon Rikke );
my %ages;

$ages{'Martin'} = 44;
$ages{'Rikke'}  = 12;
$ages{'Sharon'} = 23;

my @insert = @ages{@peeps};
# @insert = ( 44, 23, 12 )

##</code><code>##

my @peeps = qw( Martin Sharon Rikke );
my %ages;
@ages{@peeps} = ();  # make keys with undef values

# take references to the values
my @insert = \@ages{@peeps};

# same thing but more explicit
$insert[0] = \$ages{'Martin'};
$insert[1] = \$ages{'Sharon'};
$insert[2] = \$ages{'Rikke'};

# same thing but shorter
push @insert, \$ages{$_} for @peeps;

$ages{'Martin'} = 44;
$ages{'Rikke'}  = 12;
$ages{'Sharon'} = 23;

my @ages_array = map { ${$_} } @ages{@peeps};