Is there any way that I can pull out that first entry, and then use that variable to create a filehandle to print to?

You're really going to have to give more information. How do you want to use the variable to create a filehandle? If you actually mean "use the variable to create a filename, you've begging for trouble. What happens if the variable is the same name as your script, or has ../../../ embedded in it? How would you prevent other files from being overwritten?

Perhaps you should look into using Storable, FreezeThaw and Data::Dumper. This would allow you to take all of your data and just store it in a file, with names that you predetermine (this prevents filename conflicts).

Cheers,
Ovid

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