open my $fh, '>', $file_name or die "Cannot open $file_name: $!"; #### my %handles = get_write_handles(qw/col1.txt col2.txt col3.txt/); sub get_write_handles { my @file_names = @_; my %file_handles; foreach (@file_names) { open my $fh, '>', $_ or next; $file_handles{$_} = $fh; } return %file_handles; } #### print { $handles{'in.txt'} } "something\n"; #### foreach (values %handles) { print $_ "something\n"; } #### sub get_read_handles { my @file_names = @_; my @file_handles; foreach (@file_names) { open my $fh, '<', $_ or die "Yikes $_: $!"; push @file_handles, $fh; } return @file_handles; } #### sub get_append_handles { my @file_names = @_; my @file_handles; foreach (@file_names) { if (open my $fh, '>>', $_) { push @file_handles, $fh; } else { push @file_handles, undef; } } return @file_handles; }