It took me weeks to figure out the actual code on how to connect to SQL Server without setting up a DSN on the machine. Hopefully I can spare someone the same pain.

This should give you the basics:

use DBI;
use DBD::ODBC;

my ( $data_source, $database, $user_id, $password ) = qw( server datab
+ase user password );

my $conn_string = "driver={SQL Server};Server=$data_source;Database=$d
+atabase;UID=$user_id;PWD=$password";

my $dbh = DBI->connect( "DBI:ODBC:$conn_string" ) or die $DBI::errstr;

my $sql = "SELECT * FROM tbl_Foo (NOLOCK)";

my $sth = $dbh->prepare( $sql );
$sth->execute;

while ( my $result = $sth->fetchrow_hashref ) {

    # Your fields can be accessed through the $result hashref, for exa
+mple:

    print $result->{First_Name};

}

$dbh->disconnect;
[download]

I would second using

• DBI
• DBD::ODBC

Be sure to install MDAC 2.1 (or higher)

Also, ignore any advice to use DSN's on the machine, you should really build a complete connect string in your code. that way you stay portable. Nothing like moving it to a newer bigger machine (inevitable with NT) and then having to hand-build a DSN.

You should get suprisingly good results from a combination of Perl and ODBC. It sure beats using that other product from our pals in Redmond.

Modules:

• DBI
• DBD::ODBC

You can get them from:
CPAN

Also, you might want to try FreeTDS and DBD::Sybase. MS-SQL Server is based off Sybase and uses TDS. I've had good results using the modules/drivers mentioned above.

The DBI module is not fun for the uninitiated... have a read here for some good tutorials.