my $dbh = DBI->connect('DBI:mysql:diet', {RaiseError => 1, AutoCommit => 0} ) || die "Failed to connect: $DBI::errstr";
my $sth = $dbh->prepare( qq{select topic FROM table1 WHERE uri LIKE ?} );

search($sth, 'foo');
search($sth, 'bar');

$sth->finish();
$dbh->disconnect(); #disconnect from database;

sub search{
  my $sth = shift;  # require statement handle (this could probably be a global var instead if desired)
  my $q = shift;    # take search parameter from html <form/>
  my $found = 0; #initialize category found count;
  $sth->execute($q);
  my $rows = $sth->fetchall_arrayref( {} );
  printf "%d rows found for '%s'.\n", scalar(@$rows), $q;
  foreach my $row (@$rows){
    printf "   Topic: %s\n", &topic($row->{topic});
  }
}