my $query = "SELECT Name FROM Table WHERE Name= 'Will Tu''ufo''ou'"; my $sth = $dbh->prepare($query); $sth->execute(); while($name = $sth->fetchrow_array) { $originalName = $name; $name =~ s/jr//i; #removes 'jr' from names $name =~ s/III//i; #removes 'III' from names $name =~ s/\s+$//; #removes ' ' from end of name #print $name . "\n"; if ($originalName =~ m/'/) { $originalName =~ s/'/''/g; print $originalName; } $updateQuery = "UPDATE week13dk SET Name = '$name' WHERE Name = '$originalName'"; my $uth = $dbh->prepare($updateQuery); $uth->execute(); }