print "Connecting to database... ";  #this print works

# Connect to the SQL database
my $dbh = DBI->connect($dsn,'username','password',{RaiseError=>0, PrintError=>0});
if ($dbh) {
    print "Connected.\n";      #gets printed
}else{
    print "Cannot connect to database. (",$dsn,")\nQuitting\n";
    exit;
}

print "Processing File... ";   # delayed till near end.

my $sth = $dbh->prepare( qq{
     SELECT field1 FROM Table
     WHERE field2 = ?});

open(FILE, 'data');  # gonna process a BIG file
while(<FILE>) {
$sth->execute($_);
# etc etc...
}
close FILE;

print "Done processsing file\n";