You most likely want to be using the DBI module. Here's some sample code that would connect to a MySQL database, retrieve the last record entered, and do something with it.

    my $database = DBI->connect ('DBI:mysql:mydatabase:myserver.com', 
+'username', 'password') || die;

    my $command = "SELECT Data,PostedAt FROM WEATHER ORDER BY ID DESC 
+LIMIT 1";
    my $cursor = $database->prepare ($command) or die $database->errst
+r . "<br>" . $command;
    $cursor->execute or die $database->errstr . "<br>" . $command;
    $DBI::rows == 1 or die "db_read_latest_record returned a value oth
+er than 1";
    my @row = $cursor->fetchrow_array;
    $cursor->finish;

    $database->disconnect;

    return (@row);
[download]

This is very simplistic but demonstrates connecting to a database, retreiving a record and returning. You need to take a look at 'perldoc DBI'. I don't know what the equivalent of 'perldoc' is on NT, though. My installation doesn't have it, and I have a Linux box to fall back on.

Connecting to an Access database is similiar, except instead of using 'DBI:mysql', use 'DBI:ODBC'. You'll need to setup a machine data source in the Start | Settings | ODBC Data Sources control applet. The fields for the password and user are slightly different, and can be set to an empty string, since the DSN specifies the access parameters to the database.

Hopefully, that should be enough to get you started.

--Chris