You can also print the assignment: 
print $str = <<SEP;
This is a string $xyz

SEP

[download]
As other people have suggested, you often should be scoping the string with my when you assign it. What that does is well-explained by Dominus in Coping with Scoping.

In reply to Re (tilly) 1: line seperator by tilly
in thread Assignment and printing at same time? by mkirank

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