use DBI;
use Encode;
use Jcode;

my $dbh = DBI->connect('DBI:ODBC:japan','','') or die "Cannot connect: $DBI::errstr\n";

my $sth = $dbh->prepare('Select English, Kana, Kanji from Vocab')
    or die "Cannot prepare: $DBI::errstr\n";
	
$sth->execute or die "Cannot execute: $DBI::errstr\n";

@row = $sth->fetchrow_array();
print("@row\n");

$i=0;
foreach $i (@row) {
    print(getcode($i), "\n");
    $i++;
}

my $ustring = decode( 'ascii1', $row[2] );

print("My ustring is now $ustring\n");

#$dbh->disconnect;

##</code><code>##

Output1:
----------
Ah! ? NA
ascii1
ascii1
ascii1
Unknown encoding 'ascii1' at ... line 22.

##</code><code>##

Output2:
---------
Ah! ? NA
ascii1
ascii1
ascii1
My ustring is now 1.