Ah, symbolic references . . .

Are BAD!! You shouldn't use them, but since you are, here is the answer: 

$USERNAME = 'my_name';
$PARM1    = 'USERNAME';
print "$$PARM1\n";

[download]
Now you can access $USERNAME via $PARM1. You really should use strict, by the way - it's like making a hyper child sit on his/her hands. :)

References are best used on lists and objects: 

my $array_ref = @foo;
my $hash_ref  = %bar;
my $obj_ref   = new Foo::Bar;

[download]
so that when they get passed around, space and time are not wasted making copies. Instead, the address is passed instead of making an explicit copy. References to scalars are not very usefull.

Jeff 

R-R-R--R-R-R--R-R-R--R-R-R--R-R-R--
L-L--L-L--L-L--L-L--L-L--L-L--L-L--

In reply to (jeffa) Re: Changing variables be reference by jeffa
in thread Changing variables be reference by MMGM

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.