I'm not sure why the {} notation for creating a hash ref isn't effective.

My point about the extra procedures is that they didn't add any value to the DBI calls, ie they didn't remove any repetitive code. I find procedures like that a bad thing because instead of seeing a $sth->fetchall_arrayref I have to scroll down to see what the procedure actually does.

I wasn't intending my comments to be a harsh critisism, I just wanted to point out there might be a better alternative.

gav^