Your question is very confusing. Variables can't be stored in a function, for starters. (Well, there are closures, but let's avoid advanced topics of no immediate relevance.) Maybe one of the following snippets will answer your question:

# Modifies @array in-place.
foreach (@array) {
   $_ = sprintf($format, $_);
}
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# Copies to a second array while formatting.
my @formatted = map { sprintf($format, $_) } @array;
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# Same as last, but without using "map".
my @formatted;
for (0..$#array) {
   $formatted[$_] = sprintf($format, $array[$_]);
}
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Does that help?

To print the pre-formatted data, simply use the following:

foreach (@formatted) {
   print($_, "\n");
}
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