How do I connect with Perl to SQL Server? - perl

Question

I have a user id, password, database name and datasource details. I want to connect with Perl to a MSSQL server. I just used the following snippet, but I am getting an error.
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use DBI;
my $data_source = q/dbi:ODBC:192.168.3.137/;
my $user = q/bharani/;
my $password = q/123456/;
# Connect to the data source and get a handle for that connection.
my $dbh = DBI->connect($data_source, $user, $password)
or die "Can't connect to $data_source: $DBI::errstr";
My error is:
DBI connect('192.168.3.137','bharani',...) failed: [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified (SQL-IM002) at my sqlconnect.pl line 14
Can't connect to dbi:ODBC:192.168.3.137: [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified (SQL-IM002) at mysqlconnect.pl line 14.
The SQL server runs on another system, I am just trying to connect with above details. Please tell me, should I crease DSN in my system, or is anything missing in my program?

Answer 1

Everything following 'dbi:ODBC:' in your connection string is passed to the ODBC driver. For MSSQL, try this connection string:
DBI->connect("dbi:ODBC:Driver={SQL Server};Server=192.168.3.137;UID=$user;PWD=$password")
You can find some more alternatives on connectionstrings.com

Answer 2

I am on Ubuntu (20.04) and followed the instructions to install SLQ Server in a docker container:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/quickstart-install-connect-docker?view=sql-server-ver15&pivots=cs1-bash
I created the TestDB and the table Inventory as per the tutorial.
I installed the ODBC driver following
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/odbc/linux-mac/installing-the-microsoft-odbc-driver-for-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver15
The driver library file was /opt/microsoft/msodbcsql17/lib64/libmsodbcsql-17.5.so.2.1
With that, the following script successfully connects to the DB and returns the content of the table:
#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use DBI;
my $user = 'SA';
my $password = '<YourNewStrong#Passw0rd>';
my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:ODBC:Driver={/opt/microsoft/msodbcsql17/lib64/libmsodbcsql-17.5.so.2.1};Server=localhost;Database=TestDB;UID=$user;PWD=$password");
my $sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT * FROM Inventory");
$sth->execute();
while ( my #row = $sth->fetchrow_array ) {
print "#row\n";
}