Programming the Perl DBI: Database programming with Perl

by Tim Bunce, Alligator Descartes

Overview

One of the greatest strengths of the Perl programming language is its ability to manipulate large amounts of data. Database programming is therefore a natural fit for Perl, not only for business applications but also for CGI-based web and intranet applications.The primary interface for database programming in Perl is DBI. DBI is a database-independent package that provides a consistent set of routines regardless of what database product you use--Oracle, Sybase, Ingres, Informix, you name it. The design of DBI is to separate the actual database drivers (DBDs) from the programmer's API, so any DBI program can work with any database, or even with multiple databases by different vendors simultaneously.Programming the Perl DBI is coauthored by Alligator Descartes, one of the most active members of the DBI community, and by Tim Bunce, the inventor of DBI. For the uninitiated, the book explains the architecture of DBI and shows you how to write DBI-based programs. For the experienced DBI dabbler, this book reveals DBI's nuances and the peculiarities of each individual DBD.The book includes:

• An introduction to DBI and its design
• How to construct queries and bind parameters
• Working with database, driver, and statement handles
• Debugging techniques
• Coverage of each existing DBD
• A complete reference to DBI

This is the definitive book for database programming in Perl.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781449315368
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/04/2000
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	366
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Tim Bunce has been a perl5 porter since 1994, contributing to the development of the Perl language and many of its core modules. He is the author and maintainer of the DBI, DBD::Oracle,and Oracle::OCI modules, and author and co-maintainer of The Perl Module List. Tim is the founder and CTO of Data-Plan Services, a perl, database, and performance consultancy with an international client base. Prior to that we was Technical Director (CTO) of IG in the UK where he was awarded by British Telecom for his role in the rapid development of their Call Management Information service, a system implemented in Perl. He is co-author, along with Alligator Descartes, of Programming the Perl DBI, the definitive book on DBI, published by O'Reilly & Associates in February 2000.

Table of Contents

Dedication; Preface; Resources; Typographical Conventions; How to Contact Us; Code Examples; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Introduction; 1.1 From Mainframes to Workstations; 1.2 Perl; 1.3 DBI in the Real World; 1.4 A Historical Interlude andStanding Stones; Chapter 2: Basic Non-DBI Databases; 2.1 Storage Managers and Layers; 2.2 Query Languages and Data Functions; 2.3 Standing Stones and the Sample Database; 2.4 Flat-File Databases; 2.5 Putting Complex Data into Flat Files; 2.6 Concurrent Database Access and Locking; 2.7 DBM Files and the BerkeleyDatabase Manager; 2.8 The MLDBM Module; 2.9 Summary; Chapter 3: SQL and Relational Databases; 3.1 The Relational Database Methodology; 3.2 Datatypes and NULL Values; 3.3 Querying Data; 3.4 Modifying Data Within Tables; 3.5 Creating and Destroying Tables; Chapter 4: Programming with the DBI; 4.1 DBI Architecture; 4.2 Handles; 4.3 Data Source Names; 4.4 Connection and Disconnection; 4.5 Error Handling; 4.6 Utility Methods and Functions; Chapter 5: Interacting with the Database; 5.1 Issuing Simple Queries; 5.2 Executing Non-SELECT Statements; 5.3 Binding Parameters to Statements; 5.4 Binding Output Columns; 5.5 do() Versus prepare(); 5.6 Atomic and Batch Fetching; Chapter 6: Advanced DBI; 6.1 Handle Attributes and Metadata; 6.2 Handling LONG/LOB Data; 6.3 Transactions, Locking, and Isolation; Chapter 7: ODBC and the DBI; 7.1 ODBC—Embraced and Extended; 7.2 DBI—Thrashed and Mutated; 7.3 The Nuts and Bolts of ODBC; 7.4 ODBC from Perl; 7.5 The Marriage of DBI and ODBC; 7.6 Questions and Choices; 7.7 Moving Between Win32::ODBC and the DBI; 7.8 And What About ADO?; Chapter 8: DBI Shell and Database Proxying; 8.1 dbish—The DBI Shell; 8.2 Database Proxying; DBI Specification; Synopsis; Description; The DBI Class; Methods Common to All Handles; Attributes Common to All Handles; DBI Database Handle Objects; DBI Statement Handle Objects; Further Information; See Also; Authors; Copyright; Acknowledgments; Translations; Support/ Warranty; Training; Driver and Database Characteristics; Acquiring the DBI and Drivers; DBD::ADO; DBD::CSV; DBD::DB2; DBD::Empress and DBD::EmpressNet; DBD::Informix; DBD::Ingres; DBD::InterBase; DBD::mysql and DBD::mSQL; DBD::ODBC; DBD::Oracle; DBD::Pg; DBD::SearchServer; DBD::Sybase—For Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server; DBD::XBase; ASLaN Sacred Site Charter; Colophon;