my @array = map { { k => $_ } } qw (val1 val2 val3);
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(then accessing val1 and val2 would be... etc...)

 print "$array[0]->{k} $array[1]->{k}";

The first generalization is to use an array instead of variable names with numbers in them. Then you could do this:

# Preserves any pre-existing anonymous hashref.
@hr = map{ $hr[$_]->{k} = $val[$_] } 0 .. $#hr;
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Bah! here instead. ;)

# Preserves any pre-existing anonymous hashref.
$hr[$_]->{k} = $val[$_] for 0 .. $hr;
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Assuming you already have a bunch of hashrefs you need to corral, I would consider something like this:

>perl -wMstrict -le
"my @vals =
  qw(val1  val2  val3);
 my ($hr1, $hr2, $hr3) = ({a => 1}, {b => 2}, {c => 3});
 my @h_refs = ($hr1, $hr2, $hr3);
 ;;
 die 'arrays not same size' if @h_refs != @vals;
 ;;
 $h_refs[$_]->{k} = $vals[$_] for 0 .. $#vals;
 ;;
 use Data::Dumper;
 print Dumper $hr1, $hr2, $hr3;
"
$VAR1 = {
          'k' => 'val1',
          'a' => 1
        };
$VAR2 = {
          'k' => 'val2',
          'b' => 2
        };
$VAR3 = {
          'c' => 3,
          'k' => 'val3'
        };
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