I've just had a really good 'play' with that over my lunch break, and I've failed as well. It would appear that using & is the only way (I stand to be corrected of course!). If you find a way of doing it, please let me know.

>> Since the speed of EVAL() is about twice the speed of using &, is there a way
>> of doing the following using EVAL()?
>>
>> var_value = 5
>> var_name = 'var_value'
>> &var_name = 6 && var_value is now 6
>>
>> I don't see a way of using EVAL() to accomplish that, but I might be missing something.