If all the handling of these variables is going to stay within the scope of the while loop, why not just declare them as part of the split list assignment : my ($x, $y, $x) = split ('foo', @bar);)? If they are going to be external to the loop, you might look at using a list of hashes, so that you can refer to any element by using $log[line#]{'element name'}. Just my two cents.