my @patterns = ( qr/\bcreate\b/, qr/\bdrop\b/, qr/\bdelete\b/, qr/\bupdate\b/, qr/\binsert\b/, ); open a database connection here (using Sybase::DBD) and create a statement string to execute $sth=$dbh->prepare("@sqlstatement"); $sth->execute; while ($data = $sth->fetchrow_arrayref()) { next if($data->[10] =~ /tempdb/i); for ($loop_index = 0; $loop_index < $#patterns; $loop_index++) { if($data->[13] =~ /$patterns[$loop_index]/i) { print "$data->[3] $data->[9] $data->[10] $data->[13]\n"; } } } #### create delete insert update drop