This is likely to be a personal preference thing. As Corion says, some people like to write the SQL directly; others prefer a tool. Personally I use SQL::Abstract::More most of the time. I like it more than SQL::Abstract, upon which it is based, because it allows use of named parameters (I hate positional parameters), and also supports more complex clauses such as joins, etc.

Yes, in a way you will be learning one syntax instead of another. But after becoming familiar with it I think you'll find it intuitive and effective. One thing I really like is not having to think at all about quoting values, or even about placeholders. You write your values right into the call to SQL::Abstract::More, and get back the SQL and a list of bind values that will be plugged into the placeholders by the DBI. Here's an example that's based on a recent script I was working on:

use SQL::Abstract::More;
my $sql_builder = SQL::Abstract::More->new;

my ( $sql, @bind ) = $sql_builder->select(
    -columns => "id, site_id",
    -from    => "jobs",
    -where   => {
        id => [ 10 .. 20 ],
        first_seen_time => [
            "null",
            { "<" => time - 86400, ">" => time - 86400 * 8 }, 
        ],
    },
);

print " SQL: $sql\n\n";
print "BIND: @bind\n";'

...
[download]

Output:

SQL: SELECT id, site_id FROM jobs WHERE ( ( ( first_seen_time = ? OR (
+ first_seen_time < ? AND first_seen_time > ? ) ) AND ( id = ? OR id =
+ ? OR id = ? OR id = ? OR id = ? OR id = ? OR id = ? OR id = ? OR id 
+= ? OR id = ? OR id = ? ) ) )

BIND: null 1486484465 1485879665 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
[download]

As you can see the builder adds lots of parentheses, some probably not necessary, but your RDBMS will optimize the query in any case.

Hope this helps!