# Silly example, but fits the spec
my @languages = qx#echo "select Language from CountryLanguage where CountryCode='RUS'"|mysql -u username database_name#;

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use DBI;
$|++;

my %info = (
    db      =>  "database_name",
    user    =>  "username",
    pass    =>  "pAsSwOrD"
);

my $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:$info{db}", $info{user}, $info{pass});
my $ref = $dbh->selectall_arrayref("select Language from CountryLanguage where CountryCode='RUS'")
    or die $DBI::errstr;

my @languages = map { $_->[0] } @$ref;    # Store the first element ('Language') in array