define variable name on the way

[madM]

Hi monks, I was wondering if there is any options to define the variable name of for example a string when the script runs. For example something like this

$number =1;
$name.$number= 'hey';

so the variable with the string 'hey' would be $name1

is this or something similar possible
i appreaciate your answers
thanks!

[amon]

There is a feature similar to this in Perl, but this is considered to be a very bad idea, because it makes code utterly unmaintainable. Use arrays instead.

my $index = 0;
my @array;
$array[0] = "hello";
$array[1] = "world";
print "$names[0] $names[1]"; #=> "hello world"

You can also use variables for the 0 or 1: “my $index = 0; $array[$index] = "hello"”

Or you could use hashes

my $index = 0;
my %hash;
$hash{greeting} = "hello";
$hash{name} = "world";
print "$hash{greeting} $hash{name}"; #=> "hello world"

Again, you could also use variables:

my $key = "greeting";
$hash{$key} = "hello";

Edit: properly escaped square brackets

[amon]

The canonical explanation why you shouldn't use variables as variable names was given by MJD in the varvarname emails.

[amon]

Also, the above formatting got b0rked. The second paragraph should be:

You can also use variables for the 0 or 1: “my $index = 0; $array[$index] = "hello"”

[AnomalousMonk]

Because you posted as a registered user, you can un-b0rk your own original post by editing it, in this case by adding  <code> ... </code> tags. Please see Writeup Formatting Tips and Markup in the Monastery.

Update: If you edit or update one of your posts, please add a brief notation of the edit and its nature.

[NetWallah]

See also Why it's stupid to `use a variable as a variable name'.

[Laurent_R]

The bottom line is that symbolic references can almost always be replaced with an hash. I once tried symbolic references because I had the feeling that it was difficult to do otherwise, only to find out finally that I only needed a hash of hashes to solve my problem. Having gone through that dilemma, I think I can find a better solution for just about any problem, I can't think of a real reason where symbolic references would really make sense.

[bart]

What you can do and why it's a bad idea: "Why it's stupid to `use a variable as a variable name'" (AKA "varvarname")