Connecting to SQL Server using Perl using DBI? - sql

Question

I am trying to connect to SQL server using Perl DBI module, I have tried all the connection string format still Perl is throwing invalid connection string error.
I have already tried code snippet available on perl monk website.
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use DBI;
# Set up variables for the connection
my $server_name = '00.120.124.1;3181';
my $database_name = 'abcd';
my $database_user = 'kkkk';
my $database_pass = 'password';
my $DSN = 'driver={SQL Server};server=$server_name;da
+tabase=$database_name;uid=$database_user;pwd=$database_pass;';
my $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:ODBC:$DSN") || die "Couldn't open database
+: $DBI::errstr\n";
Expected result is to connect to Database.
failed: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBNETLIB]SQL Server does not exist or access denied. [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBNETLIB]ConnectionOpen (Connect()). (SQL-01000) [state was 01000 now 01S00] [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]Invalid connection string attribute (SQL-01S00) at perl.pl line 16. Couldn't open database +: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBNETLIB]SQL Server does not exist or access denied. (SQL-08001) [state was 08001 now 01000] Invalid connection string attribute (SQL-01S00)

Answer 1

The lines of your post that begin with +
+tabase=$database_name;uid=$database_user;pwd=$database_pass;';
+: $DBI::errstr\n";
were incorrectly copied and pasted from perlmonks.org. The leading + sign is a convention that indicates a long line was split. You should delete the + and join the line to the previous line, so that your code will read
my $DSN = 'driver={SQL Server};server=$server_name;database=$database_name;uid=$database_user;pwd=$database_pass;';
my $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:ODBC:$DSN") || die "Couldn't open database: $DBI::errstr\n";

Answer 2

Your error message contains the following:
SQL Server does not exist or access denied
Your set-up code contains the following:
my $server_name = '00.120.124.1;3181';
'00.120.124.1;3181' is not a valid server name or IP address. You should correct the IP address section (it can't start with '00') and remove the port into a separate parameter.
You also have the username and password as part of your DSN. I don't know if DBD::ODBC supports that usage (it's not mentioned in the documentation) but it's more traditional to have those as separate parameters to the connect() call.
All in all, I think you want something more like this:
my $server_name = '00.120.124.1'; # But this needs to be corrected
my $server_port = 3181;
my $database_name = 'abcd';
my $database_user = 'kkkk';
my $database_pass = 'password';
my $DSN = "driver={SQL Server};server=$server_name;port=$server_port;database=$database_name";
my $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:ODBC:$DSN", $database_user, $database_pass)
|| die "Couldn't open database: $DBI::errstr\n";
Also note that I've changed the quote characters used to create your $DSN variable from single quotes to double quotes. Variables are not expanded in signel quotes, so you weren't getting the values of $server_name, etc. in your DSN.

Answer 3

The better way to connect is with the DBD::Sybase module. The name wouldn't suggest it but SQL Server takes its lineage from Sybase. That way you can avoid ODBC. http://metacpan.org/pod/DBD::Sybase#Using-DBD::Sybase-with-MS-SQL