use DB;

our $database = 'script_db';
our $db_user_name = 'script_user';
our $db_password = 'my_secure_pw';
our $dsn = "DBI:mysql:$database:localhost";

# . . . {snip}

#FOLLOWING LINE PRODUCES ERROR WITH XAMPP
my $dbh = DBI->connect($dsn, $db_user_name, $db_password, {
    mysql_enable_utf8 => 1
    }) or die "Can't connect to the DB: $DBI::errstr\n";
    $dbh->{PrintError} = 1;
    $dbh->{RaiseError} = 1;
    $quest = $dbh->prepare($statement, { RaiseError => 1}) or die "Cannot prepare statement! $DBI::errstr\n";
    $quest->execute();