You can do almost exactly what your pseudo-code suggests, using code references. (see perlref manpage for more on refs.) The idea is that the variable is evaluated, then execution passes to the subroutine with that name, if one exists: 

     $data = &{ $action };

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Of course you'd want to catch actions that haven't been defined; you could do that by comparing $action against a hash of defined actions, or eval'ing the above statement, or, well, you know how it goes ;)

In reply to Re: Naming Subs by Anonymous Monk
in thread Naming Subs by eoin

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