Gentle monk,

Yes, the degree of repetition is a red flag that you're working inefficiently. One of your problems is that you have a sequence of variables that aren't (programatically) connected to each other, even though their names form a series

my $dbh = ...
my $dbh_b = ...
my $dbh2 = ...
my $dbh2_b = ...
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Group these all together into a hash over which you can iterate.

use strict;

my $db = "MyServer"; my $user = MyServerStuff::odbc->{ $db } { user };
+ my $pass = MyServerStuff::odbc->{ $db } { pass };

my %dbh;
for(my $ix= 1; $ix < 6; $ix++){
  foreach my $choice (qw(a b)){
    $dbh{$ix}{$choice} = DBI->connect("DBI:ODBC:$db",$user, $pass, {Ra
+iseError => 1})}};
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For the part that generates the call to the database, wrap the code in a similar loop. Use sprintf to interpolate the '!' that switches off and on, and the varying 'from main / where main ' clauses.

throop

Updated: started $ix at 1