my ($ownsel, $sortby, $letter, $ascdesc, $t);
...
if ( $cgi->param ) {
	if ( defined ( $cgi->param( 'sortby' ) ) ) {
	 $sortby = $_;
  } else {
	 $sortby = "name";
  }
	if (defined ( $cgi->param( 'ascdesc' ) ) ) {
	 $ascdesc = $_;
  } else {
	 $ascdesc =  "desc";
  }
	if (defined ( $cgi->param( 'letter' ) ) ) {
	 $letter = $_;
  } else {
	 $letter = " ";
  }
	ownertbl( $sortby, $ascdesc, $letter );
} else {
	homepage();
}
...
sub ownertbl {

	( $sortby, $ascdesc, $letter ) = @_;
...
	$sort = "ORDER BY " . $sortby . $ascdesc;
...
	print STDERR "base = $base, sort = $sort, sortby = $sortby, ascdesc = $ascdesc, letter = $letter\n";