#!/usr/bin/perl -Tw

use strict;
use CGI qw# :standard :form #;
use DBI;
use DBD::mysql;

my $dbh = get_handle('dbname', 'dbuser', 'dbpasswd');
my $listref = get_catnames( \$dbh ); # sending a ref

print header;
print start_html;
print popup_menu( -name=>'categories', -value=>$listref );

$dbh->disconnect;

#####
#####

sub get_catnames {
my $dbh  = shift;
my @cats = ();

my $statement = "select category_name from mtx_catnames";

my $sta = $$dbh->prepare($statement); # deref this
   $sta->execute;
my $cats = $sta->fetchall_arrayref;

 for my $row ( @{ $cats } ) {
 push @cats, $row->[0];
 }

return \@cats;

}


sub get_handle {
my ($DB, $DBUSER, $DBPASS) = @_;
my $dsn = "DBI:mysql:database=$DB;host=localhost";
my $dbh = DBI->connect($dsn, $DBUSER, $DBPASS)
          or die( qq|cannot connect to database $DB| );

return $dbh;

}