#col1name and col2name are the names of the columns in the database
$hash_ref = { col1name=>"orange",
              col2name=>"15" };

##</code><code>##

# get whole result set into an array

my @rs = @{ $sth->fetchall_arrayref() };

# each element of @rs is a reference to a two-member array

#let's map the first elements to the keys of the hash
# and the second elements to the values.
my %hash = map { $_->[0] => $_->[1] } @rs;

##</code><code>##

perl -e 'print "How sweet does a rose smell? "; chomp ($n = <STDIN>); $rose = "smells sweet to degree $n"; *other_name = *rose; print "$other_name\n"'