Re: How do create a variable in another package in Perl?

[Corion]

In addition to Mark Jason Dominus' paper discouraging using a name to create a variable, you can look at eval or just plain access the variable through its fully qualified name:

my $varname = "Foo::Bar::my_var";

{
  no strict 'refs';
  my @array = @{ $varname } = (1,2,3);
  my %hash = %{ $varname } = (1 => 2);
  my $scalar = ${ $varname } = "Hello World";
}

use Data::Dumper;
eval <<'EOF';
    print Dumper \@Foo::Bar::my_var;
    print Dumper \%Foo::Bar::my_var;
    print Dumper \$Foo::Bar::my_var;

EOF

Most likely, you will use this technique for the wrong thing. It is very, very rarely needed to create variables in a package whose name you don't know yet. The one situation I know and accept is to set up @ISA for another package.

[Anonymous Monk]

The one situation I know and accept is to set up @ISA for another package.

Me too, and like Modern Perl Book, you probably just want to use Module::Pluggable :)