If you're really comparing based on small integers, and really modifying the value of variables in a similar way, I would consider using an array of scalar references .... or re-writing to use an array or hash to replace the scalars:

my @table = ( \$abc, \$def, \$wyz );
$table[$x] = 1;
# or
my @categories;
$categories[$x]++;
# or
my %categories;
$categories{$x} = code2value( $x );
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Not a religious thing, but it does have the advantage of automatically handling new categories, if you can arrange for the returned values to remain small integers.

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