This is outside of perl but the MySQL query browser which is available from mysql.com has some export routines that will allow you to dump to csv, html, xml and xsl (though only Office XP compatible as it is the xml office format.) And you can do these dumps based on the query result set. Not bad if you need to visualise the data first and get the output quickly. I use the query browser to design the queries my scripts need. And get a visual feel of the data before I automate. The question is, does this need to be an automated process or is it just a dump and go. If it is dump and go use the query browser, if it is automated script check the examples given.