Programming :: Perl: Compare CGI Input With Data From A MySQL Table?

I have this program:

#! /usr/bin/perl
use DBI ;
use strict ;

[code]....

and I get this error simply running the program from the command line: DBD::mysql::st execute failed: You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 1 at ./submit.cgi line 24.

is this the right syntax to use, both, for this line:

my (@param) = $cgi->param("firstname","lastname","type") ;

as well as this one:

$sth=$dbh->prepare ("SELECT firstname,lastname,type FROM dts WHERE firstname LIKE $param[0] AND lastname LIKE $param[1] and type LIKE $param[2]" );

or should there be quotes around the $param[0] or something? (also is it $param[0] or $param(0)?)