You can use a hash and populate it based on a list with map:

my %names = map { $_ => '' } qw(foo bar baz);

print "$names{$_}\n" for keys %names;

# access individually

print "$names{foo}\n";
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You can also use an array, but it'll only work if your variables are truly in a numbered order. Note that an array starts at zero and not one though. If your vars aren't literally ordered, use a hash instead.

my @names = ('') x 6;

# the following is wrong, pointed out in the reply by mr_ron
# my @names = '' x 6;

print "$_\n" for @names;

# access individually

print "$names[2]\n"; # prints 3rd element
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I think the solution might be closer to:

use strict;
use warnings;

my ($name1, $name2, $name3, $name4, $name5, $name6) = ('') x 6;

print "\n $name1, $name2, $name3, $name4, $name5, $name6\n\n";
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Using '' x 6 in scalar context just concats the empty string six times yielding just an empty string. So:

use strict;
use warnings;

my @names = '' x 6;
print "$names[2]\n";

__END__
Use of uninitialized value $names[2] in concatenation (.) or string at
+ ...
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Ron

Nice catch! :)

Why would you want to? As hinted by stevieb "numbered" variable are almost always the wrong way to do it. Tell us more about what you are doing and we can give a much better answer that will continue to work when you need to add or remove a few names and will be much easier to understand (once you understand arrays or hashes).

my $name1 = my $name2 = my $name3 = my $name4 = my $name5 = my $name6 
+= '';
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($q=q:Sq=~/;[c](.)(.)/;chr(-||-|5+lengthSq)`"S|oS2"`map{chr |+ord
}map{substrSq`S_+|`|}3E|-|`7**2-3:)=~y+S|`+$1,++print+eval$q,q,a,
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More of a gee-whiz than anything else, but at least the following allows lexicals to be added and removed without worrying about adjusting any initializer list or repetition count:

c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"$_ = 'phil' for my ($name1, $name2, $name3, $name4);
 print qq{'$name1' '$name2' '$name3' '$name4'};
 ;;
 my $init = 42;
 $_ = $init++ for my ($n1, $n2, $n3);
 print qq{$n1, $n2, $n3};
"
'phil' 'phil' 'phil' 'phil'
42, 43, 44
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Hello Anony-monk,

Any reason you couldn't just do this:

my ($name1,$name2,$name3,$name4,$name5,$name6) = ('','','','','','');
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Cheers,
Shadowsong