Thanks everyone for the answer. I used the second reply and it worked. Now my code looks like this: 
#!/usr/bin/perl

use DBI;
use CGI ':standard';
use strict; use warnings;

my $q= CGI->new();

print header, start_html('Advanced Search');

# Connect to the database
# See footnote 1
my $dbh = DBI->connect('DBI:mysql:mirnas', 'root', 'pass')
    or die "Couldn't open database: $DBI::errstr; stopped";
    
    
# Getting all the column names and creating checkboxes for them
my $table = '07_11_09';
my $sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT * FROM $table;");
$sth->execute;
my @cols = @{$sth->{NAME}}; # or NAME_lc if needed
$sth->finish;

#printing the checkboxes
print
checkbox_group(-name=>'fields_to_search',
               -values=>\@cols # Your array above
              );
#storing the parameters from the checkboxes
my @fields_to_search=param('fields_to_search');



#creating the submit boxes

print'<FORM 
    ACTION="http://sirocco/cgi-bin/advanced_search.pl"
    METHOD="POST">';                          
print br, '<INPUT TYPE = "SUBMIT"VALUE="Click To Submit">';
print '<INPUT TYPE="RESET"VALUE=Clear>';
print '</FORM>', end_html;

[download]
But when I do that I don't get anything. Also how do I pass the @params to an sql statement Would it be something like my $sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT * FROM $table WHERE tissue = @fields to search;"); THanks for any possibble answers in advance

In reply to Re^2: perl, DBI and CGI checkboxes by gogoglou
in thread perl, DBI and CGI checkboxes by gogoglou

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • 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! —
  • 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:
    & &amp;
    < &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.