I decided to stay with what I have (because the scalar variables are used all over the program and I didn't want to do a great deal of editing). However, next time I have this situation I will most likely use: 
for (qw / server database user password ... initversion /) {
     help() and last unless (defined $cfg->params($_) and $cfg->params
+($_));

[download]
and use $cfg->params(server) instead of $server Thanks to all (Perl Monks is fantastic!)

In reply to Re^4: checking values of variables by Anonymous Monk
in thread checking values of variables by fionbarr

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