Presumably you have

@$arrayRef = ();
while (my $row = $sth->fetch()) {
   push @$arrayRef, $row;
}
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To quote from the docs for fetch_arrayref,

Note that the same array reference is returned for each fetch, so don't store the reference and then use it after a later fetch. Also, the elements of the array are also reused for each row, so take care if you want to take a reference to an element. See also "bind_columns".

Replace it with

@$arrayRef = ();
while (my $row = $sth->fetch()) {
   push @$arrayRef, [ @$row ];  # Make a copy.
}
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or with

@$arrayRef = @{ $dbh->selectall_arrayref($stmt_or_sth) };
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Updated to use OP's $arrayRef instead of a new variable.

Perhaps you can show us some code to review?

Thank you for responding and offering help. here's the code that doesn't work (in all of its ugliness.) and that is followed by what I think is just a cleaner version that DOES work??? I don't know why (could it be the SWITCH or the way I get the arguments to the subroutine???

use Switch;
use DBI;
sub rec_exists;

my (@retRows, @row, @tmp, $retRecs);

while ($line = <>) {
    chomp($line);
    if ($line eq "q") { goto Exit; }
    else {
       $retRecs = rec_exists($line,\@retRows);
    }
    $tmp = @retRows[0];
    @row = @$tmp;
    ($nKey, $fN, $lN, $bN, $hN, $mN) = @row;
    print "$nKey,$fN, $lN, $bN, $hN, $mN\n";
}
Exit:
    exit();


sub rec_exists {
   my ($searchType,$searchParm,$retArrayRef) = split(/,/,@_[0]);
    my $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:database=aaaaas;host=localhost",
+"bbbbbb","cccccccccc",{'RaiseError' => 1});
    my ($found, @row, @rows, $nKey, $sth);
    $rowRef;
    @rows = ();
    switch($searchType) {
    case "1" {
        # search using the nKey
        $nKey = $searchParm;
        chomp($nKey); 
        $nKey =~ s/^\s+//; 
        $nKey =~ s/\s+$//;
        $sth = $dbh->prepare("Select  * from sContacts where nKey like
+ '$nKey%'");
        $sth->execute();
        $found = 0;
        while ( $rowRef = $sth->fetchrow_arrayref ){
        $retArrayRef->[$found] = [ @$rowRef ];
        $found++;
        }
               
    }
    }

    $sth->finish;
    $dbh->disconnect;
    return $found;
}
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====================== Now here's the stuff that does work

use Switch;
use DBI;


my (@retRows,$retRecs, $searchKey);

$searchKey = 'marcC';

$retRecs = test_exists($searchKey,\@retRows);

print "returned $retRecs\n";
$tmp = @retRows[0];
print "@$tmp\n";
exit();

sub test_exists {
    my ($searchKey, $retRowsRef) = @_;
    my ($retArrayRef, $found);
    my $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:database=aaaaa;host=localhost","
+bbbbbb","ccccccccc",{'RaiseError' => 1});
    my $sth = $dbh->prepare("Select  * from sContacts where nKey like 
+'$searchKey%'");
    $sth->execute();
    $found = 0;
    while ( $retArrayRef = $sth->fetchrow_arrayref ){
    $retRowsRef->[$found] = [ @$retArrayRef ];
    $found++;
    }
    $sth->finish;
    $dbh->disconnect;
    return $found;
}
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