sub open_report
 {
   my $sgv = $dbh->prepare("show variables");
   $sgv->execute();
          while (my $gv=$sgv->fetchrow_hashref())
{
 %MySQL_Variables{@gv[0]} = @gv[1];(is there a systax err here)
Then to use a mysql item in perl use 
%MySQL_Variables{"uptime"}
             }
$sgv->finish();
}