#!/usr/local/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; no strict "subs"; no strict "refs"; my $line = 'fields: name addr zip state city'; my $var_city; print "$line\n"; $line =~ s/[-)(]//g; my @columnNames = split(/\s+/, substr($line,9)); print @columnNames; print "\n\n"; my $acount = 0; foreach my $name (@columnNames) { $acount++; print "name is: $name\n"; ${var_."$name"} = $acount; #print "nname is: ${"$name"}\n" } print "this should display 5: $var_city\n";