Our friend monks already gave many alternatives, but here is generaly what I do when using the DBI; 

die $db_handle->errstr;
my $sth = $dbh->prepare('SELECT * FROM table WHERE column LIKE ("%"?"%
+") LIMIT 1') or $error = "$db_handle->errstr");
my $rv = $sth -> execute($column_value);

[download]
You can later in your code check if there where any errors by saying 
if ($error) {do something}

[download]
Sometimes you dont have any errors, but your query resulted in zero rows!! You can check the number of rows affected by the $rv.

Best Wishes
Cav

update (broquaint): tided up formatting

In reply to Re: Perl/SQL Query by cavalive
in thread Perl/SQL Query by Red_Dragon

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