If I run the SQL statement without the perl formatting (duh) on the database but replace '$mainsearch' with something like CAT...the statement DOES work correctly, and grabs rows with a value of 'CAT" from the database. But the real problem comes when I change it back and in perl when the user runs the code...It "stops" (not HAULTS) but just doesnt finish the rest of the 'or' statements. (if that makes sense) So basically, in my terms $mainsearch is loosing its value cause its no longer checking the condition on att_data and etc... I'm still fairly clueless to what I've done wrong. In response to using % on read_input, apparently the snippit of code I got to read input from the previous page (form) is suppost to be that way. *shrugs* It works :)

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