1. use DBI placeholders... (very rough code below) 
    my $sth=$dbh->prepare_cached("select sitename, url, country, language,
+ listing, description from main where category=? and sitename like ?"
+);
$sth->execute($category,$letter);

    [download]
  2. Make sure your DB has good indexes on category and sitename.

In reply to Re: Optimizing a MySQL Query by lhoward
in thread Optimizing a MySQL Query by mandrakus

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