While I suspect this might not be that great from the database side, would it be possible to do a query that contained all of the possible (field like ?) statements, preparing that query, then setting the values to '%' if they are not presented? Something such as:

  my $query = qq{SELECT * FROM table_name WHERE (field1 LIKE ?) AND 
(field2 LIKE ?) AND ... AND (fieldn LIKE ?) ORDER BY ...};
  my $rv = $sth->prepare($query);
  my @query_for = ('%') x $number_of_fields;
  # then replace those elements in @query_for 
  # with values from whereever, where appropriate
  $sth->execute(@query_for);
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Just wondering...