I am new to perl so this is just a general question.

Why does GL set up the sql queries like:
my $cond = GT::SQL::Condition->new( 'Full_Name', 'LIKE' 'catName%');
my $sth = $db->select( ['ID','Full_Name'],$cond );

and not
select * from $cat WHERE Full_Name LIKE catName%;


Forgive me if this is a stupid question but I thought Perl could run a regular sql query(i.e. "select * from...").

I am trying to get the hang of this Perl language and create my own globals so any help is welcome.

Thanks in advanced.