That would work, but it would be more efficient to pass the hash by reference:

get_page_content(\%variables, "names");
  # instead of %variables = get_page_content("names");

sub get_page_content {
    my ($hashref, $type) = @_;


    my $dbh = DB_File::connect();
    $sth = $dbh->prepare (qq{ SELECT `name`,`value` FROM `page_variabl
+es` WHERE `type` = ? });
    $sth->execute($type);
    while(my ($db_name,$db_content) = $sth->fetchrow_array()) {
        $$hashref{$db_name} = $db_content;
    }
    $sth->finish();

}
[download]