$DSN= 'dbi:DriverName:database=$db;host=$host;port=$port;'

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This won't work as you want. See Quote and Quote-like Operators in perlop. Generally, it's a good idea to add print statements as per Corion's advice. Not only for the DSN, also later for SQL statements. Instead of 
$sth = $dbh->do('SELECT whatever ...');

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it's better do write 
my $sql = 'SELECT whatever ...';
print "Statement: [$sql\n]";
$sth = $dbh->do($sql);

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I myself prefer 
use Data::Dumper;
...
my $sql = 'SELECT whatever ...';
print Dumper $sql;
my $sth = $dbh->prepare($sql) or die "prepare failed: ', $DBI::errstr;
...

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because if I have a reference somewhere, I see directly what that points to.

In reply to Re: Using DBI to make connection to a database by soonix
in thread Using DBI to make connection to a database by campbell

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