If you don't want strict refs, turn them off: 
my $sub_name = 'this';
my $x = do { no strict 'refs'; \&$sub_name };
print $x->(), "\n";
sub this {
    return "hi";
}

[download]

Note that I kept the scope small in which I used the no strict "refs"; to prevent damage from unwanted symbolic dereferentition.

In reply to Re: variable reference to subroutine while "strict" by moritz
in thread variable reference to subroutine while "strict" by halfcountplus

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