Validating a Successful DB connection

[Gary Sperano]

I need to understand if there is a way to sucessfully validate a DB connectio within a script. SO if the connection to the DB is successful, I want to write the data directly to the database. If the connection is not successful, as in the event the server is being rebooted, I want to write the data to a file. I do not want to use 'RaiseError' as this will cause the script to immediatly terminate. Below is the code I am using to connect

use DBI();

# Connect to the database.
my $dbh = DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:database=nb_reports;host=$MySQLserver",
"script", "Scr1pt");

Here is where I need the help

if (sucessfully connected to db) {
....
....
....
}
else {
....
....
....
}

Thanks in advance