To follow up with what BBQ wrote... you can either check the return value of your database functions, or you can just use the RaiseError attribute, which will die on an error: 
    my $dbh = DBI->connect($dsn, $user, $pass, 'mysql', { RaiseError =
+> 1 });

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In reply to Re: How can I see error messages from MySQL? by btrott
in thread How can I see error messages from MySQL? by derek

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