If you find yourself repeating yourself repeating yourself too much too much, you can also cobble-together a little sub vaguely like this one:

sub prepare_execute {   # (sql, what)
  my ($sql, $what) = @_;
  my $sth=$dbh->prepare($sql)   # '$dbh' IS GLOBAL...
    or die "can't prepare $what: $dbh->errstr";
  $sth->execute
    or die "can't execute $what: $sth->errstr";
  return $sth;
}
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... or whatever else you want to put in there.   This is “strictly shorthand,” but sometimes shorthand is what you really want.   If you find yourself doing the same thing over and over and over again, put it into a local sub.