$dbh = CWT::Site_DB::connect(); $sth = $dbh->prepare (qq{ SELECT * FROM config_settings }); $sth->execute(); my %settings = %{$sth->fetchrow_hashref}; # I'm assuming you only have one row... foreach my $key (keys %settings) { my $varname = "$" . $key; eval "$varname = $settings{$key}" or die "problem with eval"; } $sth->finish();