That is the code, except for the exceedingly long SQL statement - which was built for me by a tool and works fine. The suggestion about using single quotes actually did fix the issue - was that just a side effect?

The "exceedingly long SQL statement" was the problem, if changing from double quotes to single quotes fixed it. You must have some @, $, or \ somewhere in that string.

When people post "this breaks" but don't post the code that actually breaks, all we can do is guess. On Usenet, it's a common practice to simply make up a nonsense answer like "the problem is on line 48, or near there". {grin}

But yes, changing the stuff you posted from double to single quote wouldn't have changed a thing, so whatever your secret SQL is, that's where the problem was. Please keep that in mind next time. Most of the people answering questions here are not asking for things idly. {grin}

-- Randal L. Schwartz, Perl hacker