As per chatterbox discussions and traded /msg's, the following is a snippet of code as to how I would implement such a piece of logic:

#!/usr/bin/perl -Tw

use strict;
use warnings;

my $dbh = self->new("DBI:mysql:database=test", undef, undef);

#   Reference database handle via self package
#
$dbh->execute("select * from users");

#   ... or ...

#   Reference database handle methods directly from calling script
#
$dbh->{dbh}->do("select * from users");

exit 0;


package self;

use DBI;
use strict;

sub new {
    my $param = shift;
    my $self = {};
    bless ($self, (ref($param) || $param));
    $self->{dbh} = DBI->connect(@_);
    return $self;
};

sub execute {
    my $self = shift;
    return $self->{dbh}->do(@_);
};

1;

__END__
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This code is fairly straight-forward in that a class self is created and returned to the calling namespace. This class can be accessed either within the class-space as per the execute method or via dereference to the included references to other classes ($self->{dbh}).

 

Ooohhh, Rob no beer function well without!