In addition to not shouting, you're saying:

"I'm not going to give you all the information, but I'm going to get mad when you don't give me the answer I want".

Huh. We, as a community, pride ourselves at going beyond the question. Our experience is that most people asking a question are asking the wrong question. Once they learn what question they need to be asking, then that is where the majority of their growth comes from.

Now, if there is a reason why you want array => array (and I'm sure there's a good reason), you really need to state that up front. Something along the lines of:

I need to be able to take data that is in two arrays and create one array from them. Due to reasons I cannot discuss, I cannot rewrite the code to use other data structures.

At that point, no-one is going to suggest alternative data structures. Why? Because you've demonstrated that you're asking the right question. We've all been there and we know what the score is.

Relax - you're among friends.

and in response to dragonchild. if you read my post (along with my first post), i stated EXACTLY what i was looking for. the problem arises in that what i want is not generally in good practice. yes i realize that, and yes i even appreciate you pointing this out to me. but i am not looking for improvements, this is in fact what i want to do. ...and just to state one more time, i did not intend that to depict shouting and i am very appreciative of the time and help that has been bestowed upon me!

my %data = ( john => [ ], mike => [ ], harry => [ ] );

foreach my $name(qw/john mike harry/) { 
    push @{ $data{$name} }, any_data_goes_here;
}
[download]

use strict;

my @tablenums = ('1', '2', '3');

my %tables =
(
    '1' => { name => "john",  data => [] },
    '2' => { name => "mike",  data => [] },
    '3' => { name => "harry", data => [] },
);

foreach (@tablenums)
{
    push @{$tables{$_}->{data}}, "any", "data", "goes", "here";
}

print "$tables{1}->{name}`s data is @{$tables{1}->{data}}!";
#prints "john`s data is any data goes here!"
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use strict;

my @tablenums = ('1', '2', '3');
my (@johnData, @mikeData, @harryData);

my %tables =
(
    '1' => { name => "john",  data=>\@johnData },
    '2' => { name => "mike",  data=>\@mikeData },
    '3' => { name => "harry", data=>\@harryData },
);

foreach (@tablenums)
{
    push @{$tables{$_}->{data}}, "any", "data", "goes", "here";
}

print "john`s data is @johnData!";
#prints "john`s data is any data goes here!"
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my $any_data_goes_here = "bla blie bloe ";

my @tablenums = ('1', '2', '3');
my (@johnData, @mikeData, @harryData);
my %Tables = (
'1' => \@johnData,
'2' => \@mikeData,
'3' => \@harryData,
);
foreach (@tablenums){
   push (@{$Tables{$_}}, $any_data_goes_here);
}

print @johnData, @mikeData, @harryData;
[download]

let me try one last time, it seems as if what some of the replies have been encompassed into my question and the wee little piggy ran all the way home and we need to bring him back...
i have an array: my @bigFatArray;
i have a scaler: my $smallskinnyScaler = "bigFat";
i want to be able to build that array and push onto it:
something like: push @{ "$smallskinnyScaler" . "Array"}, data

Well, the reason everyone is wondering, is that this is really not something anyone would want to do, except in, well, exceptional circumstances, which you sort of hint at, but you never explain what the excact constraints are....

anyway:

my @data = qw(d e f);
my @bigFatArray = qw(a b c);
my $smallskinnyScaler = "bigFat";
my $ref = eval "\\\@${smallskinnyScaler}Array";
push @$ref,@data;
print @bigFatArray;
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update And please consider what would happen if $smallskinnyScaler contains "data; system('rm -f /'); #"

Have fun.

"What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"

Thanks for the pointer. But I recommend that you go read How do I compose an effective node title? — especially the section on single-word titles.

-- 

jdporter

use strict;
use warnings;

my @tablenums = ('1', '2', '3');
my (@johnData, @mikeData, @harryData);
my @any = ("any", "data", "goes", "here");

my %Tables = (
'1' => "john",
'2' => "mike",
'3' => "harry",
);
foreach (@tablenums){
eval "push \@${Tables{$_}}Data, (\"" . join ('","', @any, $_) . "\");"
+;
}

print "john`s data is @johnData!";
#prints "john`s data is any data goes here 1!"
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Your refusal to elaborate on context is going to only aggravate anyone who is willing to help. Why are you being secretive?

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

my @tablenums = ('1', '2', '3');
our (@johnData, @mikeData, @harryData);
my @any = ("any", "data", "goes", "here");

my %Tables = (
'1' => "john",
'2' => "mike",
'3' => "harry",
);

foreach (@tablenums){
    no strict 'refs';
    push @{"$Tables{$_}Data"}, @any;
}

print Dumper(\(@johnData, @mikeData, @harryData));
[download]

Further reading: Symbolic references