You probably should look at Lexical::Alias.

The module appears to complain if you try to use it with a version of perl prior to 5.8.0, but there is a comment in the pod saying that thanks to a bug fix (by tye), it should now work with versions greater than 5.005.

Presumable it would be a case of modifying the test if you are using an earlier version.

Update: An example of use. 

P:\test>perl -MLexical::Alias
my( @a, $x, $y, $z );
@a = 'A' .. 'Z';
alias( $a[23], $x );
alias( $a[24], $y );
alias( $a[25], $z );
print "$x : $y : $z\n";
^Z
X : Y : Z

[download]
Examine what is said, not who speaks.
"Efficiency is intelligent laziness." -David Dunham
"Think for yourself!" - Abigail
Hooray!
Wanted!

In reply to Re: use simple scalar names to point to specific array elements by BrowserUk
in thread use simple scalar names to point to specific array elements by Sandy

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.