Greetings monks

I need to come up with an algorithm to find $j sequential IP addresses within a single $vlan if. It is possible that there is not $j sequential address within the table. In that case $j addresses will be selected by the lowest value of difference between the highest octet4 and lowest octet4.

The code below selects $j IPs from $vlan according to their location within the table. I should also add that although there are many things that may need be changed regarding syntax, I really only have 30 mins to get this cranking.
Any ideas? Is there a quick way to do this?

Each $vlan contains about 250 or so address & $j <= 5

############################################################
sub getips
############################################################
{
my $j = shift;
my $vlan= shift;
my $name = "ips" . $j;
my ($sth, $dbh, %ips, $i, @iparray);

$dbh=DBI->connect('DBI:ODBC:Servers', { RaiseError => 1, AutoCommit =>
+ 0 });

$sth = $dbh->prepare( "SELECT IPs.* FROM  IPs LEFT OUTER JOIN StaticIP
+s ON IPs.Octet1 = StaticIPs.octet1 AND IPs.Octet2 = StaticIPs.octet2 
+AND IPs.Octet3 = StaticIPs.octet3 AND IPs.Octet4 = StaticIPs.octet4 W
+HERE (StaticIPs.octet1 IS NULL) AND (IPs.VLAN = '$vlan')" );
$sth->execute;
$sth->bind_columns( \( @ips{ @{$sth->{NAME_lc} } } ));  #----Saves spe
+ed by binding columns to their values. See netTools_help.doc.
$sth->{'ChopBlanks'} =1;    #----Removes extra spaces from fixed char 
+fields. See netTools_help.doc.

$i=0;
while ($sth->fetch) {
  if ($ips{'octet1'}) {
    $iparray[$i]=join(".", "$ips{'octet1'}", "$ips{'octet2'}", "$ips{'
+octet3'}", "$ips{'octet4'}");
  }
++$i;

}
$j--;
print scrolling_list(-class=>'df', -name=>'$name', -values=>[@iparray]
+, -size=>'1', -default=>$iparray[$j]);
$sth->finish();
$dbh->disconnect();          #----Needed to free up system resources.

}
[download]

Thanks in advance,
hok_si_la