title: inserting data from perl into mysql
body: <p>I'm trying to insert data produced by perl into an oracle database table using perl DBI. Its the first time I've tried this so its likely I'm making a simple mistake.</p>
  
  <p>What i'm using at the moment is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$dbh = DBI-&gt;connect ('dbi:Oracle:geosgen','student','train')
    || die "Database connection not made: $DBI::errstr";
  
    $sql = "INSERT INTO MYTEST VALUES ($series, $sheet, $maxlat, $minlat, $maxlong, $minlong)";
  
    $create = $dbh-&gt;do($sql);
    print "Content-type:text/html\n\n\n";
  if($Create){
  print "Success";
  }
  else{
  print "Failure&lt;br/&gt;$DBI::errstr";
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and the output I get is like this:</p>
  
  <p><code>DBD::Oracle::db do failed: ORA-00917: missing comma (DBD ERROR: error possibly near &lt;*&gt; indicator at char 36 in 'INSERT INTO MYTEST VALUES (Scotland &lt;*&gt;one inch 1st, Shetland Islands (North) (131), -0.6800, -1.4100, 60.9700, 60.6900)') [for Statement "INSERT INTO MYTEST VALUES (Scotland one inch 1st, Shetland Islands (North) (131), -0.6800, -1.4100, 60.9700, 60.6900)"] at bruce1.pl line 69, &lt;INPUT&gt; line 924.
  Content-type:text/html</code></p>
  
  <p>meaning it has read the data in successfully but failed. I expect I've made a rookie error, is there anything obvious?</p>