You can store a filehandle is a variable, so why not use an array of filehandles, e.g. open($aFiles[$i], ">>"$filename")?

Note: apparently print doesn't like print $aFiles[$i] "Some text" so you will have to assign the file handle to a scalar before using it, something like this:

use strict;
use warnings;

my @aFiles;
for (0..2) {
  my $sFile = "foo.$_";
  open($aFiles[$_], '>', $sFile) or die "$sFile: $!";
  my $fh = $aFiles[$_];  #make print happy
  print $fh "Hello World\n";
  close $fh;
}
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Best, beth

It should work with print {$aFiles[$_]} "Hello World\n"; without the need for an extra variable.

apparently print doesn't like print $aFiles[$i] "Some text"

Similar syntactic issues arise with

my $line = <$fh[$i]>;
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The workaround here - if you don't want to use an extra intermediate variable - would be to use

my $line = readline $fh[$i];
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<{$fh[$i]}> wouldn't work here.


Side note: I often see people from the Anti-Perl League get overly upset about those minor inconsistencies in the language...  But methinks, could you love someone who has no quirks whatsoever? Well, I couldn't. Ditto with programming languages ;)

Wouldn't IO::File effectively do what you want? I don't think you worry about the actual name of the filehandle, but don't want the number of handles needed at compiletime - right?

The number of filehandles get decided at runtime...

There is a document available which tries to explain that more detailled:

• Why it's stupid to `use a variable as a variable name` - part 1
• Why it's stupid to `use a variable as a variable name` - part 2
• Why it's stupid to `use a variable as a variable name` - part 3

ELISHEVA has already shown you the way, but it's worth commenting on some of the important style elements in Beth's code.

First off, note that she uses strictures (use strict; use warnings;) - you should always use strictures!

Note too that Beth uses the three parameter version of open and that she checks the result. Always use the three parameter version of open. Not so obvious because of the nature of the question is that a lexical variable is being used for the file handle - always use lexical variables and declare them in the smallest scope possible.