Yeah, and in those cases (ie; with table names) I do it both ways...

$sth = $dbh->prepare(qq{
select $ouch,$this from $hurts
where $another = ?
}) or DoSomethingElse();
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I know this looks stupid has hell, and it has bothered me in the past too! But, I don't use it that often so I never really bothered looking for a solution. At least keeping the values within the placeholders I get DBI to quote them for me. I haven't had the need to quote a table name yet...