Just use a hard reference:
use strict;
my $b = '1';
my $a = \$b;
$$a = '2';
print $b;
You must declare
$b before referencing it as
\$b (I know, I have
tested my code), because typing
my $a = \$b;
my $b = '1';
in this order will autovivify a variable
$main::b
and then declare a
different $b "my" variable.
The reason why your program prints '1' is nearly the same.
You can use symbolic references (opr string references
as you call it), only to package variables. You cannot use
a symbolic reference to a "my" variable. So, in your code,
you have two variables:
my $b
$main::b
That's all !
