Hi, I have a program which takes an input file that includes a string which tells the program which subroutine to use (from an imported file of subroutines, using the "do" statement) at a certain point. (The input file changes through the day, so different subs are needed at different points). I save the imported string as 
 
my $generic_sub ="name of sub to use"

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Then, at the point in the program when I want to use the sub, call 
 
$return value = &$generic_sub(arguments)

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Problem: using strict this throws the error: 
Can't use string ("name of sub") as a subroutine ref while "strict ref
+s" in use at program_name_1.0 line 153.

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I've read the perlref docs about using references to name subroutines, but that doesn't seem to solve the problem, in that I still need to use the name of the string from the input file to determine which subroutine to use, whether that subroutine is referred to by a reference or not. And it is the use of the string as a subroutine ref that is causing the error, right? Thanks for any pointers. Colin

In reply to subroutine refs by CColin

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