variable through another variable

[jnmfl]

I have the name of a variable stored in $var. How can I make it so $data grabs the variable name? I tried this:

  $data = $$var;

I put $$var with two $'s because one '$' for the variable, then right after that the '$var' places the variables name, I hope there's a way to do this, I'm just using bad syntax and I don't know what the procedure is called.

Originally posted as a Categorized Question.

[Juerd]

That will work, but not under strict 'refs'. Symbolic references are considered bad practice (but you can't always avoid them).



$testing = "Hello, World!\n";
$var = "testing";
$data = $$var;
print $data; # prints Hello, World!


Using a hash is better, and hashes are useable under strict 'refs':

$hash{"testing"} = "Hello, World!\n";
$var = "testing";
$data = $hash{$var};
print $data;

(You can remove quotes from hash keys that have no \W characters: $hash{testing}.)

[Roy Johnson]

Apparently this FAQ is not easy to find, since the question gets asked regularly.

Re: Create an array reference from a string offers helpful input from Corion and dragonchild.

[metadoktor]

So you've done something like this?

$var="\$somevariable";

and you want to do this?

$data=$var

now...

$data="$somevariable"

but why would you want to do that? Unless you really meant to do this?

$data=$somevariable;

[Roy Johnson]

See Re: variable with $$.