use DBI; my $file = "c:\\\\mydir\\\\myAccess.mlb"; my $dsn = 'driver=Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb);dbq=' . $file; my $user = ''; my $pass = ''; my $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:ODBC:$dsn", $user, $pass); or die "Error in connect: $DBI::errstr\n";