%data = ('col_1'=>'foo',
         'col_2'=>'bar',
         'col_3'=>'baz');

##</code><code>##

insert_hash("table", \%hash);

##</code><code>##

sub insert_hash {
    my $table_name = shift;
    my $rowref = shift;
    my %row = %$rowref;
  
# ?c? and ?v? are placeholders
# Any better ideas for placeholders to pretty up the regexes?
    my $sql = "insert into $table_name (?c?) values (?v?)";
    
    foreach (keys %hash) {
        $sql =~ s/\?c\?/$_,\?c\?/g;
        $sql =~ s/\?v\?/$hash{$_},\?v\?/g;
    }

# Pull off the last comma (extraneous) and the placeholders
    $sql =~ s/,\?c\?//g;
    $sql =~ s/,\?v\?//g;
    return $sql;
}