use DBI; $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:database=blah;host=127.0.0.1", "root", "****", {'RaiseError' => 1}); DBI->trace(1); $insertline = "INSERT INTO table (column1,column2) VALUES ('value1','value2');"#column2 does NOT exist in the table and should through back an error $query = $dbh ->prepare($insertline); $query->execute();