A bit more of an expansion on my comment above...

# untested! just off top of head

my $db   = 'DBI:mysql:database=db;host=host';
my $user = '...';
my $pass = '...';

my $result = db_query('select * from table');

my $dbh;
sub db_query {
  my $sql = $_[0];
  $dbh = DBI->connect_cached($db, $user, $pass);
  my $sth = $dbh->prepare($sql);
  $sth->execute();
  my $result_hashref = {};
  while (my $ref = $sth->fetchrow_hashref()) {
    $result_hashref->{ $ref->{'id'} } = $ref;
  }
  $sth->finish();

  return $result_hashref;
}

sub DESTROY {
  if (defined $dbh) {
    $dbh->disconnect();
  }
}
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Is this the sort of thing you're looking for?

.02

cLive ;-)