use warnings;
use strict;

my @interests = ( "foo", "bar", "blah" );

$_ = "My interest is $_" for @interests;

print $_,"\n" for @interests;
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A way of solving this while using strict:

my @interests = ("foo", "bar", "blah");
my %hash;
foreach (@interest) {
    $hash {$_} = "My interest is $_";
}
foreach (@interest) {
    print $hash {$_}, "\n";
}
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Abigail

Thanks for your post.
I wasnt so much interested in solving this problem, more so in the how/why it doesnt work.
I'll try and do a bit more research on symbolic references.
Cheers,
Reagen

While EdwardG provided you a solution based on aliasing, the proper solution you are looking for is a hash.

my @interests = ( "foo", "bar", "blah" );
my %interest_expanded;

foreach (@interests) {
 $interest_expanded{$_} = "My interest is $_";
}


foreach (keys %interest_expanded) {
        print $_, " => ", $interest_expanded{$_} , "\n";
}
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my @interests = ( "foo", "bar", "blah" );
foreach (@interests) {
 no strict 'refs';
 $$_ = "My interest is $_";
}
foreach (@interests) {
        no strict 'refs';
        print $$_ , "\n";
}

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Why not consider using a hash? If I understand you correctly you want to assign to variables that have names you don't now in advance.

  use strict;

  my @interests = ( "foo", "bar", "blah");
  my %hash;

  foreach (@interests) {
    $hash{$_} = "My interest is $_";
  }

  foreach (keys %hash) {
    print "$hash{$_}\n";
  }
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Hope this helps, -gjb-

Update: Thanks dragonchild for pointing out a typo (%hash rather than @interests in the last foreach)