Hello again bigup401,

I found some time and I put together a small example that replicates your script and also the test case.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use DBI;
use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
use Config::Simple;

#package LSPDB;

$|=1; #flush every time the program

my $path = 'conf.ini';
my %config = ();
my $checkExist = "";

sub mysql {
    Config::Simple->import_from("".$path."", \%config)
    or die Config::Simple->error();

    my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:mysql::".$config{'MySQL.host'}.":".$co
+nfig{'MySQL.port'}."", 
               "".$config{'MySQL.user'}."",
               "".$config{'MySQL.pass'}."",
               { 'PrintError' => 1, 'RaiseError' => 1 , 'AutoInactiveD
+estroy' => 1 } 
    ) or die "Could not connect to ". $config{'MySQL.host'} .": ". $DB
+I::errstr ."\n";

    my $databases = $dbh->do("SHOW DATABASES LIKE '".$config{'MySQL.db
+'}."'")
    or die "Error: " .dbh->errstr. "\n";

    if ($databases eq 1) {
    printf "Database: ". $config{'MySQL.db'} ." exists not creating: "
+. $config{'MySQL.db'} ."\n";
    }
    else {
    printf "Database: ". $config{'MySQL.db'} ." does not exist creatin
+g: ". $config{'MySQL.db'} ."\n";

    $checkExist = $dbh->do("CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS `".$config{'
+MySQL.db'}."`")
        or die "Could not create the: ".$config{'MySQL.db'}." error: "
+. $dbh->errstr ."\n";
    } # End of else

    $dbh->do("USE ".$config{'MySQL.db'}."")
    or die "Error: " .dbh->errstr. "\n";

    my $tables = $dbh->do("SHOW TABLES FROM `".$config{'MySQL.db'}."`
              WHERE Tables_in_".$config{'MySQL.db'}." LIKE
              '".$config{'MySQL.table'}."'")
    or die "Error: ".dbh->errstr. "\n";

    if ($tables eq 1) {
    printf "Table: ".$config{'MySQL.table'}." exists not creating: ".$
+config{'MySQL.table'}."\n";
    }
    else {
    printf "Table: ".$config{'MySQL.table'}." does not exist creating:
+ ".$config{'MySQL.table'}."\n";

    $checkExist = $dbh->prepare("CREATE TABLE ".$config{'MySQL.table'}
+." (
                    `ID` INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
                    `lastname` VARCHAR(25) CHARACTER SET utf8 NOT NULL
+ UNIQUE,
                    PRIMARY KEY(`ID`)
                    );");

    if (!$checkExist->execute()) {
        die "Error: ". $checkExist->errstr ."\n";
    }
    } # End of else

    $checkExist = $dbh->prepare("INSERT IGNORE INTO `".$config{'MySQL.
+table'}.
                "` (`lastname`) VALUES    ('John'), ('Doe'), ('Jones')
+, ('Smith')");

    if (!$checkExist->execute()) {
    die "Error: ". $checkExist->errstr ."\n";
    }

    my $statement = "SELECT * FROM `".$config{'MySQL.table'}."` WHERE 
+1";

    my $hash_ref = $dbh->selectall_hashref($statement, 'lastname');

    $checkExist->finish();

    $dbh->disconnect()
    or warn "Error disconnecting: $DBI::errstr\n";

    return $hash_ref;

} # End of mysql sub

my $output_ref = mysql();

my @lastnames = keys %$output_ref;

print Dumper $output_ref, \@lastnames;

__DATA__

$ perl mysql.pl
Database: PerlMonks exists not creating: PerlMonks
Table: Data exists not creating: Data
$VAR1 = {
          'Doe' => {
                     'ID' => 2,
                     'lastname' => 'Doe'
                   },
          'John' => {
                      'ID' => 1,
                      'lastname' => 'John'
                    },
          'Smith' => {
                       'lastname' => 'Smith',
                       'ID' => 4
                     },
          'Jones' => {
                       'ID' => 3,
                       'lastname' => 'Jones'
                     }
        };
$VAR2 = [
          'Doe',
          'John',
          'Smith',
          'Jones'
        ];
[download]

The conf.ini file:

[MySQL]
user=user
pass=password
host=localhost
port=3306
db=PerlMonks
table=Data
[download]

On your next question it would be easier for us to provide your minimal working example for replicating your problem.

Hope this helps.