fooble syntax OK Your problem's elsewhere.

Scratches head ... Really, I'm not crazy:

gonzo:: more foo.pl
#!/usr/local/bin/perl

my $columnname = 'id';
print $rowobj->$columnname;

gonzo:: perl -c foo.pl 
syntax error at foo.pl line 4, near "$columnname;"
foo.pl had compilation errors.
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OK, how about that fact that I'm running an ancient perl 5.005. That would explain our different results.

And the solution for 5.005 is staring at me in another NOOBs question:

my $columnname = 'id';
print $rowobj->{$columnname};
[download]

Cheers