The showplan handler also handles the statistics msgs re: msg 3631 which is the line reporting actual i/o. However, the other statistics msgs are output, just not the one that I want msg 3631. I do execute sql via the program Note the statement: $dbh->dbcmd('sp_who sa'); This is a stored procedure call which contains multiple sql statements. Each sql within the stored procedure will result in a statistics report output due to the "set statistics ..." statement executed earlier in the program. I have tried a different approach which seems to work now ... after I posted this. I will post the rewritten code as a reply. I am still curious why this approach fails to output the msg 3631 text and values.