1. If you're going to do something more than twice, make it a function
2. If you're going to use it in more than two programs, make it a module
3. If doing it even once made your head hurt, throw it in a module
4. If it has data you don't want to change yourself, make it work from template files
5. If the code is could be generated from some sort of parameters, use a templating code generator for it
6. If it feels like a monkey could do it, check the above list to see what you missed

Nice list :). Any reason for the 'more than twice' rather than more than once? Anytime I find myself rewriting code, I put it in a module and don't wait for the third time. Also:

If it feels like a monkey could do it, check the above list to see what you missed

I'd argue that if it feels like a monkey could do it, you're using the right tool ;-). Then again, if it feels like it would bore a monkey, you're definately going about it wrong.

The reason for "more than two" (really three or more) is that I've found, doing a lot of support programming over the years, that tasks come in three forms--the one-off, the one-off you screwed up and have to redo, and the repeater. (Or the one, two, and many times cases)

I know the traditional CS counting scheme is "0, 1, or many", and that's more or less true for counts on data instances, but I've found in practice for writing code segments it's more "0, 1, 2, not again!"

The monkey comment was there to make people realize that, if the job requires no brain at all (we're presuming the monkey isn't smarter than the person doing the task) then a program should be doing the task, and you'd be far more effective writing a program to do the task rather than just doing the task. (Time permitting, of course, and it often doesn't)

Here's an idea as to how that might be done with some untested code.

sub build_sql () {
my $table = shift;
my %where = @_; # should use hash refs, but this is an example
my $sql = "select * from $table where ";
 foreach (keys(%where)) {
  #assumes quote() defined elsewhere to escape values
  $sql .= "$_ = ".quote($where{$_}).',';
 }
 chop $sql; #remove trailing comma 
 return $sql
}
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Please do let me know what you guys advise and also if I havent explained this clearly enough.

Well, yes, we can critique your code if you show it. Otherwise, we have to guess what you did. We can probably guess some of your mistakes, but it would be silly to keep guessing till you acknowledged the winners.

After Compline,
Zaxo

Two minor and probably utterly useless nitpicks.
1. I would suggest standardizing on which negator you are going to use. Not or !.
2. You really don't need parens around every single item in an if statement. if(($foo) and (not($baz=~/qux/))) is surely much easier to read as if($foo and not $baz=~/qux/)

About "standardizing on which negator you are going to use. Not or !."...

...that depends on the intent of expression evaluation. Word operators (not, and, or) bind rather loosely than otherwise (!, &&, ||). Just consider the output of the following...

perl -e 'print join(" ", (!0 && 0) , (!0 and 0) , (not 0 && 0) , (not 
+0 and 0))'
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It is ill advised to ask a beginner to standardise on a negator, as you put it, without mentioning the operator precedence level.

BUU, Noted. Thanks ..... will definitely keep that in mind from now on. SP