I'm pretty sure that you don't want to do the thing that you're asking to do ... but it is possible.

approach 1: use an eval:

   my %for_later;
   foreach my $name (@array)
   {
     eval <<"HERE";
       my \$$name = new OBJ;
       do_stuff(\$$name);
       $for_later{$name} = \$$name;
HERE
   }
[download]

approach2: use a global variable:

  my %for_later;
  foreach my $name (@array)
  {
    no strict;
    ${$name} = new OBJ;
    do_stuff(${$name});
    $for_later{$name} = ${$name};
  }
[download]

These should both work, but would be pretty silly for the scenario you describe. There is no benefit from naming a variable at run-time except in very arcane situations. It would be much better to do the simple:

  my %for_later;
  foreach my $name (@array)
  {
    my $obj = new OBJ;
    do_stuff($obj);
    $for_later{$name} = $obj;
  }
[download]

A couple of final notes: you'll noticed that I used $name in my examples, not $_ as you requested. You could use $_; but I don't recommend it. If you do want your objects to be named, you could always pass the name to the ctor:

  my $obj = new OBJ($name)
[download]

Now the object can remember its own name. --Dave