UPDATE: The answer was found with eval (see my response to mreece).

I'm trying to make an array of arrays, the member arrays of which have variable names. This variable-ness of the array names is necessary (unless someone has a better idea - I'm definitely open to it) because the array(s) to be used are specified at runtime by the user using Getopt::Std. The array names can't be predefined because they are being pulled from a datafile of arrays, which I don't own, that is auto-generated and could at any time have arrays added/deleted/renamed. Obviously, I don't want to rewrite with each new array, so variable names it is. Here's the issue. When I take the list of arrays specified on the command line, and add them to a new array, the new array stores their names as strings instead of simply importing the arrays' entries. Example: Here is what it would look like if I explicitly named them without variables: (much of the assumed stuff has been extracted) 

use Getopt::Std;
require "/path/filename"; # Here's my datafile.
getopts('f:');
#Here's the part I'd like to have create my array of arrays
#if ( $opt_f ) {
#        chomp $opt_f ;
#        @combined = $opt_f; # The offending line.
#}
#Here's what would work, if only the names weren't variable
@combined = ( @array1,@array2);
foreach $entry ( @combined )
{
        print "return:  $entry \n";
}

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If Getopt is bringing in $opt_f which is a string "@array1,@array2,@et_cetera", how can I get it to work properly in my "@combined..." statement? I've RTFM, and I'm sure the answer's there, but I've spent way too much time on this particular issue.

In reply to Array of Arrays with Variable Names by JWM

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