Why not use indirect syntax to access the data via the reference?

Saying my @array = @tmparray actually allocates new memory and makes a (shallow) copy of the data. Sometimes this is what you want, but in those cases it does make sense to actually say so explicitly. If you don't need a copy, and are just looking for convenience, access the elements as $arrayref->[0] and so on. True, this looks different from $array[0], but that's because it is different.

[...]

Okay, okay, if you're *sure* you want to do this, here's how to create an alias of the referenced data (-:

$arrayref = [ qw/A B C D/ ];
{
    no strict "vars";
    *array_alias = $arrayref;
}
print $array_alias[0];
[download]

Update: Fletch's advice is very good. Heed it and avoid this kludgery, at least until you really need it.