Hi everybody,
I've been writing perl for a while now, but I still find I'm writing "Baby Talk" perl - perl that's so heavily indented and makes such overuse of 'if' statements that it's just ugly
I want to improve my coding style to make it more 'perlish', yet still maintain readability etc.
Here's a example of some more offensive code.
It's a section of a CGI script (which does use warnings and strict) to do stock control of some items in a MySQL database.
I'm basically asking for style advice, or comments, because at the moment it just feels like I'm underusing the language.
Any comments gratefully accepted.

my $action = param("ACTION");
if($action) {
        #Bond the built-in and accessory components to the parent.
        if($action eq "BOND") {
                my $main  = param("MAIN");
                my @built = param("BUILT");
                my @acc   = param("ACC");
                my $query = "SELECT location FROM demstock2 WHERE ds_i
+d=$main";
                my $sth   = $db->prepare($query);
                $sth->execute or print "Can't execute <pre>$query</pre
+>: " . $db->errstr . "<br>\n";
                my $mainlocation = $sth->fetchrow_hashref;
                if($mainlocation->{"location"} ne "STOCK") {
                        print b("Refusing to bond items to $main, as i
+t isn't in main stock") . br();
                } else {
                        $sth->finish();

                        for my $acc (@acc) {
                                my $query = "SELECT curr_parent_id FRO
+M demstock2 WHERE ds_id=$acc";
                                my $sth   = $db->prepare($query);
                                $sth->execute() or print "Can't execut
+e $query: " . $sth->errstr . "<br>\n";
                                my $current_status = $sth->fetchrow_ha
+shref;
                                $sth->finish();
                                if($current_status->{"curr_parent_id"}
+ != 0) {
                                        print "Refusing to modify the 
+status of demstock $acc. It has already been moved<br>\n";
                                } else {
                                        my $query = "UPDATE demstock2 
+SET curr_parent_id=$main WHERE ds_id=$acc";
                                        my $sth   = $db->prepare($quer
+y);
                                        $sth->execute or print "Can't 
+execute <pre>$query</pre>: " . $db->errstr . "<br>\n";
                                        $sth->finish();

                                        $query = "INSERT INTO action "
+;
                                        $query   .= "(action_id, actio
+n_type, ds_id, occurred,          ref_no,       staff_id) VALUES"
;
                                        $query   .= "(NULL,      'MOVE
+',      $acc,  CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, \"0,$main\", $caluser)";
                                        $sth   = $db->prepare($query);
                                        $sth->execute or print "Can't 
+execute <pre>$query</pre>: " . $db->errstr . "<br>\n";
                                        $sth->finish;
                                }
                        }

                        for my $built (@built) {
                                my $query = "SELECT curr_parent_id FRO
+M demstock2 WHERE ds_id=$built";
                                my $sth   = $db->prepare($query);
                                $sth->execute() or print "Can't execut
+e $query: " . $sth->errstr . "<br>\n";
                                my $current_status = $sth->fetchrow_ha
+shref;
                                $sth->finish();
                                if($current_status->{"curr_parent_id"}
+ != 0) {
                                        print "Refusing to modify the 
+status of demstock $built. It has already been moved<br>\n";
                                } else {
                                        my $query = "UPDATE demstock2 
+SET curr_parent_id=$main WHERE ds_id=$built";
                                        my $sth   = $db->prepare($quer
+y);
                                        $sth->execute() or print "Can'
+t execute $query: " . $sth->errstr . "<br>\n";
                                        $sth->finish();

                                        $query = "INSERT INTO action "
+;
                                        $query   .= "(action_id, actio
+n_type, ds_id,  occurred,          ref_no,      staff_id) VALUES"
;
                                        $query   .= "(NULL,      'MOVE
+',      $built, CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, \"0,$main\", $caluser)";
                                        $sth   = $db->prepare($query);
                                        $sth->execute or print "Can't 
+execute <pre>$query</pre>: " . $sth->errstr . "<br>\n";
                                        $sth->finish;
                                }
                        }
                }
        }
}
[download]

The five trailing braces just feel "wrong" to me, in particular
cheers.
davis

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