sub search_biography { my $search_text=shift; my @result; my $table; my $sth=$dbh->prepare("select distinct hm_index,first_name,last_name, category from Biography where first_name like '%$search_text%' or last_name like '%$search_text%' or bio_text like '%$search_text%' or occupation like '%$search_text%' or description like '%$search_text%'" ); $sth->execute; while(my @row=$sth->fetchrow) { push @results , "blah - was long HTML string" } return (\@result); }