my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:Sybase:server=$percdb", $user, $passwd,
							{'RaiseError' => 1}
						);
if ($DBI::errstr) {
	FATAL($DBI::errstr);
	exit 1;
}
else {
	DEBUG('Successfully connected to database!');
}

my $sth = $dbh->prepare($QUERY);
$sth->execute;
handle_db_error();
$result_hash = $sth->fetchall_hashref('ent_id');
handle_db_error();

sub handle_db_error { 
	if ($dbh->err) { 
		FATAL("Error: $DBI::errstr"); 
		exit 9;
	}
}