DBI access inside a module

[MECKLIN, JOE (ASI)]

I'm trying to open a database in my main program, pass 3 arguments to this
module (list of field names, table name and additional SQL arguments) then
retrieve and forward the data to a waiting variable in the main program.
Every time I run it from a command line I get the following message:

Can't call method "prepare" on an undefined value at
/usr/lib/perl5/5.6.0/DBGet.pm line 19.

(Running from a browser only returns a blank screen).  The only way I can
get it to work from this module is to uncomment the "our $dbh ..."
statement.  As a subroutine in the main program it works fine.  I need to
have this as a module so I can call it from several webpages, each one a
separate Perl script.

My question is: how can I open the database once in the main program and
have it visible to this module?  I don't want to have to reestablish
connections repeatedly for each query for dozens of concurrent users.

In the main program I do this:
...
use DBGet;
...
our $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:mysql:dbname:","user","password");
...
my ($lookup_colist) = build_lookup_table("clli", "common_co_list", "order by
clli");
...

Thanks in advance for your help.
Joe Mecklin

########## Program listing ###########
package DBGet;
require Exporter;
 
our @ISA = qw(Exporter);
our @EXPORT = qw(build_lookup_table);
our $VERSION = 0.01;
 
sub build_lookup_table
{
# $_[0] = list of fields to retrieve
# $_[1] = table name to retrieve fields from
# $_[2] = any additional arguments
 
 
#our $dbh = DBI->connect("dbi:mysql:dbname:","user","password");
    my $statement = "select $_[0] from $_[1]";
    $statement .= " $_[2]" if $_[2];
 
    $sth = $dbh->prepare( "$statement" );                       <------ line
19 from error message
    $sth->execute();
 
    return $sth->fetchall_arrayref();
}
 
1;

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