foreach my $word (@words) {
    my $sth = $dbh->prepare(
        "SELECT * FROM  my_table
         WHERE 
           description LIKE '%?%' 
        OR shortdescription LIKE '%?%' 
        OR name LIKE '%?%'"
      ) || die "Error: " . $dbh->errstr;

    $sth->execute($word,$word,$word) || die "Error: " . $dbh->errstr;
 # do some stuff
}
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---

You are getting the error:

"Called with 3 bind variables when 0 are needed"

Because the DBI Doesn't think you have any bind variables to be filled because your ? ( Question Marks / Bind Variable Placeholders ) are within single quotes.

I believe that when using bind variables with the DBI you need to leave the ? ( question mark ) unquoted, or by itself.

Since you're doing a LIKE you can prepend, and append the percent signs to your variable $word.

Like this:

# Add percent sign for LIKE value in DB Search
$word .= "\%$word\%";
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Then modify your SQL Statement to look like this:

    my $sth = $dbh->prepare(
        "SELECT * FROM  my_table
         WHERE 
           description LIKE ? 
        OR shortdescription LIKE ?
        OR name LIKE ?"
      ) || die "Error: " . $dbh->errstr;
[download]

Definitely hope that helps! Good luck!