$ perl -Mstrict -Mdiagnostics -e'my $foo = "bar";my $bar = "baz";print $$foo, $/' Can't use string ("bar") as a SCALAR ref while "strict refs" in use at -e line 1 (#1) (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs". Symbolic references are disallowed. See perlref' Uncaught exception from user code: Can't use string ("bar") as a SCALAR ref while "strict refs" in use at -e line 1 $