my $months = $dbh->selectall_arrayref("select to_char(last_day(add_months('14-May-2004', (rownum-1))),'MON-RRRR')  dt
from all_objects
where rownum <= months_between(sysdate,'31-May-2004')+1");

my $month;
my $monthhash;
my $i = 0;
# populate month hash with zero's for now (this may need to be done later)
foreach $month (@$months) {
	$monthhash{@$month[0]} = $i;
#	print "pop @$month[0] $i\n";
	$i++;
}

for($i=0; $i<$#$months; $i++) {
	print "hope 1 @{$months->[$i]}\n";
	print "hope 2 $monthhash{trim(@{$months->[$i]})}\n";
	print "hope 2A $monthhash{@{$months->[$i]}}\n";
}

sub trim {
	my @out = @_;
	for (@out) {
		s/^\s+//;		#trim left
		s/\s+$//;		#trim right
		}
	return @out == 1
		? $out[0]		#only one to return
		: @out;			#or many
}