If $dbh isn't defined (false), and the second half of that statement evaluates, then you're going to get a fatal error, because $dbh won't be defined. And you can't call the method errstr on an undefined value. So you should use: 
    my $dbh = DBI->connect(...) or die $DBI::errstr;

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In reply to RE: my and its use by btrott
in thread my and its use by tame1

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