It should be quite straighforward: 
sub foo
{
  my $basename = $_[0] . $_[1];
  my $addon = '0';
  while (defined($(my $goodname = "$basename$addon"))
  {
    $addon++;
  }
  my $$goodname = $_[2];
  return $goodname;
}

[download]
untested, but 
$name = foo('example','other', 49);
print $$name . "\n";

[download]
should print 49 and put 49 in variable $exampleother0

Update: I use symbolic variables quite a bit for reusable code, but I agree with Fletch that you should learn to use data structures first.

2 made the code function correctly... :D

In reply to Re: Dynamically Building Variable Names by samizdat
in thread Dynamically Building Variable Names by willyyam

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