tie %chat, "Tie::IxHash";
# other stuff
tie %chat, 'SDBM_File', $chat, O_CREAT | O_RDWR, 0644;

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use Tie::IxHash;

require SDBM_File;

my %chat;

my $chat = "./list.dbm";                 # location of database

tie %chat, "Tie::IxHash";

print tied(%chat), "\n";

tie(%chat, 'SDBM_File', $chat, O_CREAT | O_RDWR, 0666) 
     or die "Couldn’t tie SDBM file '$chat' $!; aborting";;

if ( !tied %chat ) {
   print "database unsuccessful $!.\n";
}

print tied(%chat), "\n";