my $dbh = DBI->connect('DBI:mysql:my_db', 'user', 'pass', {RaiseError => 1, PrintError => 1, AutoCommit => 0}) or die "Error connecting to DB: $DBI::errstr\n"; my $sql = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM music"; my @row = $dbh->selectrow_array($sql); print "Found $row[0] results\n";