sub get_top_status {
    my %args =
        (start_point => 1,
         num_rows    => 10,
         sort_by     => ['result ascending'],
         @_);
    my $dbh = $args{dbh} or croak 'Missing DB handle';

    # Define the valid sorts
    my %sorts =
        (id    => 'T.id',
         name  => 'T.name'
	);

    # Build the SQL sort string
    my $sort = build_sort($args{sort_by}, \%sorts, ['name']);

    my $statement = 
	"SELECT name, id, foo FROM FOO_TABLE ORDER BY $sort";
    my $sth = $dbh->prepare($statement);
    $sth->execute();

    my @results;
    while ($row = $sth->fetchrow_arrayref and $count-- > 0) {
        if ($offset > 0) {
            $offset--;
            $next;
        }
        push @results, $row;
    }
    $sth->finish;

    return \@results;
}

# Takes a sort order and a hash defining the legal sorts and produces
# a string for embedding in SQL statements
#  - Order is an arrayref of all the sorts to use
#  - Sorts is a hashref keyed by the sort names mapping sorts to columns
#  - Fallback is an optional arrayref of the columns to append to ensure 
#    the ordering is sane (if we are sorting by severity we still want to
#    sort by name where the severity is the same)
sub build_sort {
    my ($order, $sorts, $fallback) = @_;
    $fallback = [] unless defined $fallback;
    my %done = ();

    my $sort = '';
    foreach my $s (@$order, @$fallback) {
        # Skip ones we have already seen
        next if exists $done{$s};
        $done{$s} = 1;

        # Build the sort string
        $sort .= ', ' unless $sort eq '';
        my ($col, $order) = (split(/ /, $s), 'asc');

        croak "Bad sort request '$s' (parsed '$col' '$order')."
            unless exists $sorts->{$col};

        $sort .= "$sorts->{$col} $order";
    }

    return $sort;
}