my ($counter) = $db->selectrow_array(
      'SELECT pagecounter FROM counters WHERE pagename = ?',
      undef, $pagename
   );

##</code><code>##

   my $counter = 'SELECT pagecounter FROM counters WHERE pagename = ?',
      undef, $pagename
   );

##</code><code>##

my $sth = $db->prepare('SELECT pagecounter FROM counters WHERE pagename = ?');
   $sth->execute($pagename);