eval 
{
   some db command
   $dbh->do....;
}
if ($@)
{
   print "$@\n";
   print $DBI::Errstr,"\n";
}
[download]

Hey Marshall.. I have already tried that.. I am pasting here the code snippet. Please advise.. eval { sub OpenSybaseConnection { my ($srv, $user, $pwd, $db) = @_; my $dbh; $FH1=$_4; print $FH1 "\n\nConnected to Server:$srv, Database:$db\n"; $dbh=DBI->connect("dbi:Sybase:server=$srv", $user, $pwd,{RaiseError =>1,PrintError =>1 }) || die $DBI::errstr; $dbh->do("use $db"); $common::conn_hdl = $dbh; }; }; if($@) { @proc_error=$@ ; print "inside if\n"; print "Check for if\n"; print "Hi:$@"; print "\nIn Common: @proc_error: HELP"; }

Please use <code> </code> tags around your code so that the line breaks are preserved. The eval{} goes around the dbi method code! Not around the subroutine! Anyway this is how to use eval... The connect asks to use RaiseError =>1 and I'm not sure that's in effect if the connect fails so I think the extra die is just fine- just in case. If the connect succeeds, the "do" happens next.

sub OpenSybaseConnection 
{ 
    my ($srv, $user, $pwd, $db) = @_; 
    my $dbh; 
    $FH1=$_4; #????????????????????????????
    
    eval
    {
        $dbh=DBI->connect( "dbi:Sybase:server=$srv", $user, $pwd,
                           {RaiseError =>1, PrintError =>1}  )
                             or die "Extra death $DBI::errstr";
                           
        $dbh->do("use $db"); 
    };    
    if($@)   # true if the eval failed (die'd at some point)
    { 
        @proc_error=$@ ; 
        print "inside if\n"; 
        print "Hi:$@"; 
        print "\nIn Common: @proc_error: HELP"; 
    } 
    else    # this is the "no error" case
    {
        $common::conn_hdl = $dbh; 
        print $FH1 "\n\nConnected to Server:$srv, Database:$db\n"; 
    }
    
    return;
}
[download]

dupe post for some reason..