The Text::CSV documentation explains how to set the sep_char and provides example use e.g.

my $csv = Text::CSV->new ({ sep_char => ';' });
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Text::CSV supports a "sep_char" variable in its new() method which you can set to semicolon.

You tried Text::CSV, which is the wrapper over Text::CSV_pp (pure perl) and the fast Text::CSV_XS. They both have the same syntax:

use Text::CSV;

my $parser = Text::CSV->new ({
    binary      => 1,    # allow binary data
    auto_diag   => 1,    # allow automatic warnings and errors
    sep_char    => ",",  # , is the default, ; is also use quite often
    });

open my $fh, "<", "file.csv" or die "file.csv: $!";
while (my $row = $csv->getline ($fh)) {
    say "The second field is ", $row->[1];
    }
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You tried Text::CSV, which is the wrapper over Text::CSV_PP (pure perl) and the fast Text::CSV_XS. They both have the same syntax:

use Text::CSV;

my $csv = Text::CSV->new ({
    binary      => 1,    # allow binary data
    auto_diag   => 1,    # allow automatic warnings and errors
    sep_char    => ",",  # , is the default, ; is also use quite often
    });

open my $fh, "<", "file.csv" or die "file.csv: $!";
while (my $row = $csv->getline ($fh)) {
    say "The second field is ", $row->[1];
    }
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If you want a parser WITHIN a parser, just create a second parser

use Text::CSV;

my $csv = Text::CSV->new ({
    binary      => 1,
    auto_diag   => 1,
    sep_char    => ",",
    });
my $parser = Text::CSV->new ({
    binary      => 1,
    auto_diag   => 1,
    sep_char    => ";",  # sep is ;
    });

open my $fh, "<", "file.csv" or die "file.csv: $!";
while (my $row = $csv->getline ($fh)) {
    say "The second field is ", $row->[1];
    foreach my $f (@$row) {
        $parser->parse ($f) or next;
        my @subfields = $parse->fields;
        }
    }
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DBD::CSV

$dbh = DBI->connect (
"dbi:CSV:f_dir=$ENV{HOME}/csvdb;f_ext=.csv;f_lock=2;" .
"f_encoding=utf8;csv_eol=\n;csv_sep_char=\\;;"

"...Pay attention to the semi-colon for csv_sep_char (as seen in many CSV exports from MS Excel) is being escaped in below example, as is would otherwise be seen as attribute separator:..."