in reply to How do you get Perl::DBI to do a desc table_name?

desc is a sqlplus command
You don't need DBI to do what you want
#!/usr/bin/perl -w use strict; my $cmd="sqlplus scott/tiger\@whatever"; open SQLPLUS, "|$cmd" or die "Ah poo!:$!\n"; print SQLPLUS<<DOIT; desc user_tables DOIT close SQLPLUS;