A few notes:

1. Use prepare_cached(). These look to be often-called functions. prepare_cached() will reduce the cost after the first one by caching the prepared statement for later use.
2. If at all possible, don't use "SELECT *" and don't use fetchrow_hashref(). Instead, use "SELECT A, B, C" and bind_columns() and fetch().

To implement the second solution, I'd do something like:

sub build_selector
{
    my ($dbh, $table, $field, @selectables) = @_;

    my $selectables = join ',', @selectables;

    return sub {
        my ($val) = @_;

        die "No val passed into selector" . $/
            unless defined $val && length $val;

        my $sth = $dbh->prepare_cached(<<"_SQL_");
SELECT $selectables
  FROM $table
 WHERE $field = ?
_SQL_

        die "Couldn't prepare handle: " . $dbh->errstr
            unless $sth;

        $sth->execute($val)
            || die "Couldn't execute handle" . $dbh->errstr;

        my @vals = $sth->fetchrow_array;

        $sth->finish;

        return wantarray ? @vals : \@vals;
    };
}
[download]

Even though it's below, this code is untested. Use at your own risk.

Update: Removed superfluous quotes around the placeholder.

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.