#!/usr/bin/perl use strict; use warnings; my ($blah, $boo, $hoo); # DECLARED HERE my %data = ( "blah"=>1, "boo"=>2, "hoo"=>3 ); # assign each key to a variable of the same name foreach (keys %data) { eval " \$$_ = \$data{$_} "; } # end-foreach print $blah; exit;