Just a note, the database will only report the error if it gets the SQL command. In this case, the ODBC driver never passes it along (what's the point if it fails the checks before going to be executed at the database?). And also, regardless of where the error occurs, DBI has a property to store all errors. $dbh->errstr or $DBI::errstr always holds the last error for the dbh or the last error that occurred.

Most developers will bypass the need to physically print this by setting RaiseError => 1 when creating the dbh. It may be that MS SQL 7.0 was logging the error and Ovid didn't list that info.

My own question to Ovid is why you chose to use ODBC. I'm not knocking its use, since I did the same thing, but I was curious if you tried FreeTDS, and if so, what errors came up.

I had troubles with it and MS SQL 7.0 although people say it's possible, I've not seen it in my own experience, and no one has come up with any documentation that explicitly lines out what tweaks were necessary. It'd be nice if a user was so inclined to show us the light.

Thanks if anyone takes this to task. ALL HAIL BRAK!!!