Hi ,

The select has to be implemented from inside the MySQl and not from the OS and qx[$select_cmd] or backticks or system would only have it run in the OS .

If the administrator does not want to install the DBI then do it youselves in any other directory and access it if that is somehting you can entertain doing or else try invoking

 system " sqlplus $usernm/$passwd\@$sid \@sql_command_in_an_os_file";

This could work in Oracle and there is corresponding MySQL command that invokes the sql prompt and also kicks off the select statement if the select statement can be had in an os file of as an here document in the program itself .But DBI is THE way to do the database's level works