Programming the Perl DBI

Alligator Descartes has been an itinerant fiddler with computers from a very early age ruined only by obtaining a BSc in Computer Science from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. His computing credits include several years of Oracle DBA work, multi-user Virtual Reality servers, high-performance 3D graphics programming and several Perl modules. His spare time is spent trudging around Scotland looking for stone circles and Pictish symbol stones to photograph. Alligator Descartes is not his real name. Tim Bunce developed and released the first version of the DBI and DBD::Oracle modules in 1994. Just as Perl5.000 was released. Since then he has developed the DBI into the most popular database access technology for Perl. Tim has been an active perl5-porter since 1994, contributing to the development of the Perl language and many of its core modules such as DynaLoader, MakeMaker, and Exporter. He was responsible for building and releasing maintenance versions of Perl from 5.004_01 thru to 5.004_04. He is also the author and co-maintainer of the Perl Module List. Tim is the Technical Director of the Ingram Group where he designs and develops large scale data processing, storage, and reporting applications in Perl. In 1998 was recognized by British Telecom for his role in the launch of their Call Management Information service, a system implemented in Perl.

• Preface. 1. Introduction From Mainframes to Workstations Perl DBI in the Real World A Historical Interlude and Standing Stones. 2. Basic Non-DBI Databases Storage Managers and Layers Query Languages and Data Functions Standing Stones and the Sample Database Flat-File Databases Putting Complex Data into Flat Files Concurrent Database Access and Locking DBM Files and the Berkeley Database Manager The MLDBM Module Summary. 3. SQL and Relational Databases The Relational Database Methodology Datatypes and NULL Values Querying Data Modifying Data Within Tables Creating and Destroying Tables. 4. Programming with the DBI DBI Architecture Handles Data Source Names Connection and Disconnection Error Handling Utility Methods and Functions. 5. Interacting with the Database Issuing Simple Queries Executing Non-SELECT Statements Binding Parameters to Statements Binding Output Columns do( ) Versus prepare( ) Atomic and Batch Fetching. 6. Advanced DBI Handle Attributes and Metadata Handling LONG/LOB Data Transactions, Locking, and Isolation. 7. ODBC and the DBI ODBC-Embraced and Extended DBI-Thrashed and Mutated The Nuts and Bolts of ODBC ODBC from Perl The Marriage of DBI and ODBC Questions and Choices Moving Between Win32::ODBC and the DBI And What About ADO? 8. DBI Shell and Database Proxying dbish-The DBI Shell Database Proxying A. DBI Specification B. Driver and Database Characteristics C. ASLaN Sacred Site Charter Index

'The book is very well written with frequent examples. It certainly maintained my interest from beginning to end. I mirrored the authors' examples with my own MySQL databases and had no problems. I learnt SQL as well. If you need to interact with databases and you have access to Perl, then this book is a must.' - Mick Farmer, news@UK, June 2000