1. Chapter 1 Introduction

   1. From Mainframes to Workstations

   2. Perl

   3. DBI in the Real World

   4. A Historical Interlude andStanding Stones

2. Chapter 2 Basic Non-DBI Databases

   1. Storage Managers and Layers

   2. Query Languages and Data Functions

   3. Standing Stones and the Sample Database

   4. Flat-File Databases

   5. Putting Complex Data into Flat Files

   6. Concurrent Database Access and Locking

   7. DBM Files and the BerkeleyDatabase Manager

   8. The MLDBM Module

   9. Summary

3. Chapter 3 SQL and Relational Databases

   1. The Relational Database Methodology

   2. Datatypes and NULL Values

   3. Querying Data

   4. Modifying Data Within Tables

   5. Creating and Destroying Tables

4. Chapter 4 Programming with the DBI

   1. DBI Architecture

   2. Handles

   3. Data Source Names

   4. Connection and Disconnection

   5. Error Handling

   6. Utility Methods and Functions

5. Chapter 5 Interacting with the Database

   1. Issuing Simple Queries

   2. Executing Non-SELECT Statements

   3. Binding Parameters to Statements

   4. Binding Output Columns

   5. do( ) Versus prepare( )

   6. Atomic and Batch Fetching

6. Chapter 6 Advanced DBI

   1. Handle Attributes and Metadata

   2. Handling LONG/LOB Data

   3. Transactions, Locking, and Isolation

7. Chapter 7 ODBC and the DBI

   1. ODBC—Embraced and Extended

   2. DBI—Thrashed and Mutated

   3. The Nuts and Bolts of ODBC

   4. ODBC from Perl

   5. The Marriage of DBI and ODBC

   6. Questions and Choices

   7. Moving Between Win32::ODBC and the DBI

   8. And What About ADO?

8. Chapter 8 DBI Shell and Database Proxying

   1. dbish—The DBI Shell

   2. Database Proxying

1. Appendix A DBI Specification

   1. Synopsis

   2. Description

   3. The DBI Class

   4. Methods Common to All Handles

   5. Attributes Common to All Handles

   6. DBI Database Handle Objects

   7. DBI Statement Handle Objects

   8. Further Information

   9. See Also

   10. Authors

   11. Copyright

   12. Acknowledgments

   13. Translations

   14. Support/ Warranty

   15. Training

2. Appendix B Driver and Database Characteristics

   1. Acquiring the DBI and Drivers

   2. DBD::ADO

   3. DBD::CSV

   4. DBD::DB2

   5. DBD::Empress and DBD::EmpressNet

   6. DBD::Informix

   7. DBD::Ingres

   8. DBD::InterBase

   9. DBD::mysql and DBD::mSQL

   10. DBD::ODBC

   11. DBD::Oracle

   12. DBD::Pg

   13. DBD::SearchServer

   14. DBD::Sybase—For Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server

   15. DBD::XBase

3. Appendix C ASLaN Sacred Site Charter

4. Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The animal on the cover of Programming the Perl DBI is a cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus), one of the oldest big cats, dating back four million years.

The cheetah is the fastest land animal in the world, reaching speeds up to 70 miles per hour, powered by its long legs and lean body. Its body is tan with black spots, and, at a distance, it's hard to tell males from females. A cheetah grows to be approximately two and a half feet tall at the shoulder; it measures around four feet long, with a tail about two feet long. An adult weighs 90-130 pounds. The life span of the cheetah is about ten years.

A mother cheetah's litter includes four to five cubs, who stay with their mother for a year and a half. The young learn hunting and survival skills in that time. The cheetah hunts by stalking and chasing its prey, which includes antelope, gazelles, rabbits, and game birds.

The cheetah is now considered to be an endangered species, with only 10,000-12,000 alive today, living almost exclusively in the grasslands of Africa. That number is much lower than the estimated 100,000 in 1900. In fact, it is extinct in more than twenty of the countries it originally inhabited. The cheetah suffers from loss of both habitat and food, plus poaching. Conservation groups are working to help preserve the cheetah in its natural habitat and keep it from extinction. Nicole Arigo was the production editor and copyeditor for this book. Madeleine Newell proofread the book. Melanie Wang, Sarah Jane Shangraw, and Jane Ellin provided quality control. Judy Hoer wrote the index.

Hanna Dyer designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. Kathleen Wilson produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress 4.04 using Adobe's ITC Garamond font. Alicia Cech designed the interior layout based on a series design by Nancy Priest. Mike Sierra implemented the design in FrameMaker 5.5. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano using Macromedia FreeHand 8 and Adobe Photoshop 5. This colophon was written by Nicole Arigo.

Whenever possible, our books use RepKover™, a durable and flexible lay-flat binding. If the page count exceeds RepKover™'s limit, perfect binding is used.