in reply to 2 $vars 2 1 $var

$childHood = "a young kid";
$test = "child";
{
  no strict "refs";
  ${$test."Hood"} = "an old man";
}

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This is called a symbolic reference and is disallowed under use strict, hence the temporary disabling of strict refs.

It will only work if $childHood is not a lexical (my) variable. If it is a lexical, your only recourse is eval.

Note that needing to do this usually indicates you are not storing your data in the best possible way. Perhaps you could do something like: 

my %Hood;
$Hood{child} = "a young kid";
$test = "child";
$Hood{$test} = "an old man";

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(last bit added simultaneously with Roy Johnson's comment below)

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: 2 $vars 2 1 $var
by Roy Johnson (Monsignor) on Feb 10, 2005 at 22:50 UTC
    Note that in most situations where you want to do something like this, it's often better to use a hash: 
    my %hood = (child => 'a young kid');
$test = 'child';
$hood{$test} = 'an old man';

    [download]
    Caution: Contents may have been coded under pressure.
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[d/l]

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