Looks to me that what you're trying to do is this: 
if( ( ${"MetaTag_$j"} !~ /description=/gi)  &&
    ( ${"MetaTag_$j"} =~ /posted=/gi ))
{ ... }

[download]
Now the honest answer, is yes, you can use symbolic references, but you really really really don't want to.

Now how to avoid it, depends lots on how the $MetaTag_* variables are being generated. Are they coming in with CGI? Perhaps you could use an array? 

my @MetaTags = (.....);
foreach my $tag (@MetaTags)
{
    if(($tag !~ /description/gi) && $tag =~ /posted=/gi))
    {
        print qq{<font size=-1 color="#000000" face=arial,sans-serif>$
+Summary<br></font>};
    }
}

[download]
Note also that I use !~ not !=~. !=~ will not work. !~ says this string does not match this pattern. =~ says this strings will match this pattern.

I use qq{...} instead of a here document because I feel that they look nicer.

For reasons why you don't want to use symbolic references look no further than that search button up the top. Really, there are way too many good posts on why for me to repeat them. Look here for an interesting start.

In reply to Re: Can I do this? by jarich
in thread Can I do this? by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.