Can I do: > cat j #!/usr/bin/perl $app = "filename"; my @a = qw/app/; foreach my $var (@a) { print "$$var\n"; } > ./j filename With a "my" variable for $app? as in: > cat j #!/usr/bin/perl my $app = "filename"; ### notice the my ### my @a = qw/app/; foreach my $var (@a) { print "$$var\n"; } Thanks Jay