my @updates = map {$dbh->quote_identifier($_) . ' = (?)'} ('call 1 comment', 'call 2 comment', 'call 3 comment', 'call 4 comment'); my $name_field = $dbh->quote_identifier('last name'); my $update_string = join ", ", @updates; my $sql = qq{UPDATE $table SET $update_string WHERE $name_field = (?)}; print "$sql\n"; my $sth = $dbh->prepare_cached($sql); $sth->execute('foo','bar','baz','qux','smith');