I would second moving over to Class::DBI and using SQL::Abstract. In addition, check out SQL::Interpolate--very cool.

use SQL::Interpolate qw(:all);
  
my($sql, @bind) = sql_interp
    q[SELECT * FROM mytable WHERE ],
    {'time' => $time, 'date' => $date};
  # Result:
  #   $sql = "SELECT * from mytable where time=? and date=?"
  #   @bind = ($time, $date);
my $sth = $dbh->prepare($sql);
$sth->execute(@bind);
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Also, you might look into the related DBIx::Interpolate.
Hope this helps.
Sean