pseudo: package Project::User; my @FIELDS = qw /name age sex passwd/; sub new { my $type = shift; my $dar = shift or return undef; # data array ref, usually # a fetchrow_arrayref if (ref $dar = array) { # they already pulled the data, we're just holding # it for display or an update } elsif ($dar =~ /^\d+$/) { # if it's a unique ID, pull the data from the db } else { # it's just empty, we're empty } my %init = (); my @init{ @FIELDS } = @$dar; } sub pullFromDB { my $self = shift; my $uid = shift or return undef; # sql code to pull from DB } sub dbSync { my $self = shift; # db commit stuff here } sub assignArgs { my $self = shift; # utility function to assign data values to object properties }