Help with DBI, perl, mysql on ubuntu

I apologize if this is not the right forum to ask question.

Background
=========

I am running Ubuntu 12.04 on my laptop. it is the desktop version.

I am aslo running MYSQL server version 5.5.29

I am running into some problems which seem fairly basic and could be
related to one or both of the following:

1. It looks like if I specify the "h" flag things work. However, if I use
"root@localhost", I run into problems.

syedk@syedk-ThinkPad-T410:~$ mysql -uroot -hlocalhost -p mysql
Enter password:
Reading table information for completion of table and column names
You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 2499
Server version: 5.5.29-0ubuntu0.12.04.2 (Ubuntu)

Copyright (c) 2000, 2012, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input
statement.

********does not work for root@localhost  (for some reason appends
localhost)

mysql -uroot@localhost -p
Enter password:
ERROR 1045 (28000): Access denied for user 'root@localhost'@'localhost'
(using password: YES)

2.The code that is failing on the install is this.....

#*----------------------------
-----------------------------
 #*- Create a database after checking if it exists
 #*---------------------------------------------------------
 sub create_db
 {
  my ($dbname, $userid, $pass) = @_;

  #*-- check for a duplicate db
 ----->> my $dbh =
DBI->connect("DBI:mysql:mysql:localhost:3306","$userid","$pass");
  my @dbs = $dbh->func('_ListDBs');
  foreach my $db (@dbs)
   { if ($db eq $dbname) { $dbh->disconnect(); return(); } }

  #*-- create the db
  $dbh->do("create database $dbname"); $dbh->disconnect();
  return();
 }

The error I am getting is this Line 138 refers to the ---------> line above)


DBI connect('mysql:localhost:3306'
,'root',...) failed: Access
denied
for user 'root'@'localhost' (using password: NO) at
../TextMine/DbCall.pm line 138
Can't call method "func" on an undefined value at
../TextMine/DbCall.pm line 139.

My mysql may not have all the options loaded?? I loaded DBI but may need
DBD. Also my databases only have this

mysql> show databases
    -> ;
+--------------------+
| Database           |
+--------------------+
| information_schema |
| test               |
+--------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)


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*Syed Khalid*
**
*CEO*
**
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