my $FH;
if (exists $attr->{':user_id'}) {
  $FH = $parser->{parameters}[0];
} else {
  $FH = $parser->{parameters}[1];
}
print $FH $parser->ToXML( $tag, $attr);
</code></p>

<p>The other script works differently. In the '^start_element' handler it resets the flag (stored in $parser->{pad} which is an attribute of the parser specificaly "to put anything you want to and access it in any handler"), then if the &lt;userID&gt; tag is encountered the flag is set and then the 'start_element' handler selects one of the filehandles passed to <c>$parser->parse()