my @words = split(/ /, $_[0]); my $currentword; my $newquery = "SELECT \"taskID\" from \"repair\" WHERE (\"repairKEYWORD1\" = \'\')"; foreach ($currentword, @words) { $currentword =~ /^([\w]+)$/; $newquery = $newquery . " or (\"repairKEYWORD1\" = \'" . $currentword . "\')"; $newquery = $newquery . " or (\"repairKEYWORD2\" = \'" . $currentword . "\')"; $newquery = $newquery . " or (\"repairKEYWORD3\" = \'" . $currentword . "\')"; }