I didn't say that a here doc is a _bad_ solution, just too much of a solution. Because i use placeholders ( see bind values), i don't need inner quotes, but there is nothing stopping you from using placeholders inside a here document, either. It really is just a matter of style.

A good use for here docs is for user display, and i don't mean debugging. But since i discovered the wonderful world of templating, i haven't used a here doc in a long, long time.

I rather like this quick and dirty method of encapsulating a SQL query, i really think that here docs add line noise:

sub get_artists {

   my $artist = shift() . '%';

   return $dbh->selectcol_arrayref('
      select name 
      from artist where 
      name like ?
   ',undef,$artist);
}
[download]

All i need is a pair of single quotes. But, this week taught me a pretty important lesson - there really are CPAN modules that take away having to even worry about such issues ... check out the replies by princepawn and autarch at Save MP3 Tag's to Database with SPOPS. (please note that SPOPS itself is meant for much more than what i presented.)

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
F--F--F--F--F--F--F--F--
(the triplet paradiddle)