since qball's question was about alternating colors, how about this:

my $i = 0;
while( @data = $query->fetchrow ) {
$rowcolor = $i++%2 ? $color1:$color2;
print REPORT_FILE qq(
    <tr>
    <td width=400 align=left, color=$rowcolor>$data[0]</td>
        <td width=50 align=left>$data[1]</td>
        <td width=50 align=left>$data[2]</td>
        <td width=50 align=left>$data[3]</td>
        <td width=50 align=left>$data[4]</td>
        </tr>   )  
}
[download]

or remove the $i altogether and do

while( @data = $query->fetchrow ) {
$rowcolor = $rowcolor == $color2 ? $color1:$color2;
print REPORT_FILE qq(
[download]

--traveler <bold>update:</bold> Of course, this does have elements of others' posts (e.g Masem and Russ). It's just a different way to do it.