Programming the Perl DBI: Database programming with Perl

by Tim Bunce, Alligator Descartes

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

Genres: Programming, Technical, Reference, Computers, Software, Technology

364 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 2000

Reviews

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. You can learn a lot about databases in general, and the DBI module in particular from this book.

[Keith Carangelo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book (and DBI) is still valuable after all these years, which shows the power of the library. The only thing really missing is Unicode support.

[Russell Dyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

For my web sites, I use a few basic elements: a Linux server to start; a MySQL or MariaDB database; for the user interface, besides Apache, I used previously HTML and CGI, but now Restructured Text with Sphinx for building; and I still use custom Perl programs for get data from the database for Sphinx and Apache to serve to users. To connect to the MySQL or MariaDB, the best module is Perl DBI.

Bunce's book is the best book at learning and understanding how to use Perl DBI to fetch data. He explains it well and gives straightforward examples to make it easy for you to use. This is one of five computer books I still keep in printed format -- the rest I recycled and now use the e-book versions. After many years, I still occasionally refer to this book.

If you're new to Perl programming, the best books for you are Learning Perl, Learning Perl Objects, References, and Modules, and this book on Perl DBI.

[Voxie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Covering everything from database fundamentals to efficient query strategies and even ODBC, this book is an excellent primer to using the Perl DBI. My first edition copy is over seven years out-of-date now, but having just flipped through it again, I can see many of the topics covered are still relevant to the current version of DBI. If you're interested in combining Perl programming with database use, this book is an excellent place to start.

[RJ]

Programming the Perl DBI by Tim Bunce (2000)