Plan A: Put a unique prefix on the database column names, turning off strict temporarily: 
    { no strict 'refs';
      $sth->bind_columns( map { \${"c_$_"} @{ $sth->{NAMES_lc} } ) }

[download]
Plan B: If you want the advantages of variables and the advantages of hashes, there is a way, but it will cost you a little in speed. There is one language construct that can see variables and can be built with strings, even with strict enabled: eval. 
    local $, = ',$'; # saves on the joins
    eval "\$sth->bind_columns(\\( \$@{$sth->{NAMES_lc}} ))"

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However, now you're actually letting column names into the Perl parser! A saying about frying pans and fires comes to mind.... I'd much rather disable strict than make wide use of eval STRING.

As for pseudohashes: I think they're great. The only thing about their implementation in Perl 5 that ate me alive was the fact that they weren't a distinct data type, but rather a mere access method, usable with any array at any time. If they had to be declared somehow at their creation, hey, I'd have been praising them in my Topaz talk.

    -- Chip Salzenberg, Free-Floating Agent of Chaos

In reply to RE: RE: You can't get there from here.... by chip
in thread References of Eternal Peril by mwp

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