Unless you are only going to do this lookup once per script, you'd be better reading the file once and setting up a hash:

#! perl -slw
use strict;
use Data::Dump qw[ pp ];

my %db;
while( <DATA> ) {
    chomp;
    my( $user, $pass, $db, $server ) = split ':', $_;
    $db{ $user }{ $db } = [ $pass, $server ];
}
sub getPass {
    my( $user, $db ) = @_;
    return @{ $db{ $user }{ $db } };
}


my( $pass, $server ) = getPass( 'fred', 'rocks' );
print "User:fred db:rocks server:$server pas:$pass";

=comment
C:\test>junk53
User:fred db:rocks server:quarry pas:derf
=cut

__DATA__
fred:derf:rocks:quarry
barney:yenreb:rocks:quarry
wilma:amliw:shopping:mall
betty:ytteb:shopping:mall
fred:derf:bowling:alley
barney:yenreb:bowling:mall
wilma:amliw:hair:saloon
betty:ytteb:hair:saloon
[download]

while (<$fh>) {
   chomp;
   my ($user,$passwd,$db,$server) = split /:/;
   if ($db eq $desired_db && $user eq $desired_user) {
      ...
      last;
   }
}
[download]

Thanks. I guess I was trying to do to many tricks thinking this could be a one-liner like if you were to use shell.

I'd like to see this shell solution

my @password_table = read_password_table();

sub get_password($$) {
   my ($userid, $database) = @_;
   my @matches = grep m/^$userid:.+:$database:/,
                 @password_table;
   if ( @matches == 0 ) {
      warn  "found no entries for $userid/$database";
      return;
   } elsif ( @matches > 1 ) {
      warn "found multiple matches for $userid/$database";
      return;
   }

   if ( $matches[0] =~  m/^$userid:(.+):$database:/ ) {
      return $1;
   }

   confess "some sort of logic error must have occurred";
}
[download]

Doug, Could you explain your example in a little more detail? Specifically the last if statement?