Why not split? 
my($foo, $bar, $baz, $quux) = split /\s+/, $str;

[download]
Plus it is easy to change that one line if your input format changes. Better yet: 
# Change this line if the number of entries changes.
use constant ENTRIES_PER_LINE => 4;
...
my @entries = split /\s+/, $str;
if (@entries != ENTRIES_PER_LINE) {
  warn "Wrong number of entries: '$str' at line $.\n";
}
else {
  # And update this one as well. 
  my($foo, $bar, $baz, $quux) = @entries;
  # continue with your code
}

[download]
You could also capture the entries into a hash once the split is done: 
...
my %template_value_for;
my @fields = qw(foo bar baz quux);
@template_value_for{@fields} = @entries;

[download]
And now $template_value_for{foo} has field 1, and so on.

In reply to Re^2: Can't use string ("1") as a SCALAR ref while "strict refs" in use by pemungkah
in thread Can't use string ("1") as a SCALAR ref while "strict refs" in use by Anonymous Monk

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