You really want to use a Hash of Arrays (HoA in the common parlance): 

my %use;

$use{'valpt'} = [];
$use{'valpt'}[0] = 'whatever';

[download]
see perldsc and perlref for more on this.

Update: For a vigourous explanation of why the OP doesn't want to do what he think he does see Why it's stupid to `use a variable as a variable name'.

/J\

In reply to Re: Using variables in array names by gellyfish
in thread Using variables in array names by Lhamo_rin

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