... cut ...
   my $str_arg = join " ",@ARGV;
   #remove spaces
   $str_arg =~ s/\s//g;
   @args= split /-/, $str_arg;
   shift @args;

   for my $arg (@args)
   {
      my $opt = substr($arg,0,1);

      switch ($opt)
      {
	 case /d/
	 { 
	    #this is taking the value off.
	    $options{$opt}=$arg;
	    print "This is a database $options{$opt}\n";
	 }
	 case /i/
	 { 
	    $options{$opt}=$arg;
	    print "This is an instance $options{$opt}\n";
	 }
	 else
	 {
	    print "Error arg not recognised!!!\n";
	 }
      }	   
   }