don't see the error offhand yet, but do have some code comments/suggestions after a qiuck read..

  use strict;    # use em if
  use warnings;  #   you're not already

  my @loop;

  # first, prepare the SQL .. this can be more efficient.
  # BUT more importantly, this also is using placeholders
  # ALSO note the column aliases .. this makes things more convenient 
+below.
  my $sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT item1 as _first_item, item2 as _seco
+nd_item, item3 as _third_item FROM table WHERE topic = ? ORDER BY id 
+ASC");

  # no need for a $y index ..
  foreach my $topic ( @topic[0 .. $x-1] ){  # just use an array slice 
+to get the topics
    $sth->execute( $topic );    # passing a value to the placeholder
    push @loop, {
      _TOPIC => $topic,
      _ITEMS => $sth->fetchall_arrayref({}),   # use a DBI function to
+ get the AoH of items
    };
  }

  $html->param(_TOPICS => \@loop);
  $html->output;
[download]

Hopefully clearing up the code i little w/some of those suggestions will make the bug more apparent ..

Can you also post the template source that your code is using?


update: can further simplify to a map statment:

  my $sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT item1 as _first_item, item2 as _seco
+nd_item, item3 as _third_item FROM table WHERE topic = ? ORDER BY id 
+ASC");
  my @loop = map {
    $sth->execute( $_ );
    {  _TOPIC => $_,  _ITEMS => $sth->fetchall_arrayref({})  };
  } @topic[0 .. $x-1];
[download]

---

---

Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!

Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.

Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.

Please read these before you post! —

• How do I compose an effective node title?
• How do I post a question effectively?
• Markup in the Monastery

Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:

a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr

You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)

	For:		Use:
	&		&
	<		&lt;
	>		&gt;
	[		&#91;
	]		&#93;

Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?

See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.