+---------------+-------------+------+-----+------------+-------+
| Field         | Type        | Null | Key | Default    | Extra |
+---------------+-------------+------+-----+------------+-------+
| employee_id   | varchar(9)  |      | PRI |            |       |
| firstname     | varchar(50) |      |     |            |       |
| last_name     | varchar(50) |      |     |            |       |
| title         | varchar(10) |      |     |            |       |
| dept          | varchar(10) |      |     |            |       |
| salary        | mediumint   |      |     |            |       |
| date_hired    | date        |      |     |            |       |
+---------------+-------------+------+-----+------------+-------+

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;

use DB_File;
use Mojo::DB qw(get_dbh); # this is just my shortcut for accessing DBI

$| = 1;

my $dbh = get_dbh();
unless @ARGV { die "No filename argument provided"; }
my $file = shift @ARGV;

unlink $file;
my %IDS;

# note this line right here:
tie %IDS, "DB_File", $file or die "Can't open $file: $!";

my @keys = 
    qw(employee_id firstname lastname title dept salary date_hired);

my $keys = join(', ', @keys);
my $query = "select $keys from employee_data";
my @values = @{$dbh->selectall_arrayref($query)};

for my $v (@values){
	my @vals = @$v; # one ID per array
	for (@vals){
		$_ = '-' unless $_; # in case of empty fields
	}
    # here's where I clumsily interpolate the column headings
	my @ary;
	for (@keys){
		push @ary, $_;
		push @ary, shift @vals; 
	}
	my @bry;
	shift @ary;    # lose the first column heading since the employee IDs are going the be the keys now... I know, it's cringe-worthy...
	my $key = shift @ary;
	while (@ary){
		my $k = shift @ary;
		my $v = shift @ary;
		push @bry, { $k => $v };
	}
	$IDS{$key} = \@bry;
}

# and then because I don't trust anything unless I see it for myself:
for (keys %IDS){
	print "\n\n$_:\n";
	for my $key (@{$IDS{$_}}){
		while (my($k, $v) = each %{$key}){
			print "$k => $v\n";
		}
	}
}
untie %IDS;

##</code><code>##

12345678:
firstame => Fritz
lastname => Froemming
title => analyst
dept => research
salary => peanuts
date_hired => 2006-01-20

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
use DB_File;

$| = 1;

unless @ARGV { die "No filename argument provided"; }
my $file = shift @ARGV;

# here's this line again:
tie my %IDS, "DB_File", $file or die "Can't open $file: $!";

# and this block is the same as I used for testing above
for (keys %IDS){
	print "\n\n$_:\n";
	for my $key (@{$IDS{$_}}){
		while (my($k, $v) = each %{$key}){
			print "$k => $v\n";
		}
	}
}


##</code><code>##

12345678:
Can't use string ("ARRAY(0x84d90b8)") as an ARRAY ref while "strict refs" in
        use at read_db.pl line 18 (#1)
    (F) Only hard references are allowed by "strict refs".  Symbolic
    references are disallowed.  See perlref.
    
Uncaught exception from user code:
        Can't use string ("ARRAY(0x84d90b8)") as an ARRAY ref while "strict refs" in use at read_db.pl line 18.
 at read_db.pl line 18

##</code><code>##

tie %IDS, "DB_File", $file or die "Can't open $file: $!";

##</code><code>##

12345678:
firstame => Fritz
lastname => Froemming
title => analyst
dept => research
salary => peanuts
date_hired => 2006-01-20