The answer to your problems is CGI.pm. This is standard with your perl distribution. You will only run into problems if you try to parse your query string. CGI.pm does this all (correctly) for you (and much more). IOW you are asking for a world of trouble if you avoid CGI.pm :)

I would also recommend Ovid's excellent tutorial on CGI programming with perl

Also to keep yourself in good standing at perlmonks I would recommend a couple of things.
  • read the literature on posting - turnstep's node is excellent at explaining many things a new monk should know.
  • always search before you post. I turned up many hits with query string. Pretty much saying the same that I am telling you.
  • Know thy FAQ

    grep
    grep> chown linux:users /world

    In reply to Re: Simple question - Passing variables in queary string by grep
    in thread [untitled node, ID 142613] by Samn

    Title:
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