Using a string as a subroutine name is almost always a bad idea. What you want instead is a "dispatch table", that is, a hash that maps your names to subroutines:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
use strict;

sub test1 {
 print 'test1';
}

sub test2 {
 print 'test2';
}
for my $i (1,2) {
  my $name = "test$i";
  if (exists $handler{$name}) {
    $handler{$name}->();
  } else {
    warn "Don't know what to do with '$name'";
  };
};

my %handler = (
    test1 => \&test1,
    test2 => \&test2,
);
[download]

This method allows you to extend your program while also giving you good error handling in the case that you want to call something by name which doesn't exist. It also makes your program more secure because only things can be called that you have specified as callable.

---

---

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! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

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:
	&		&
	<		&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.