NAME

IO::DB - Database convenience object.

SYNOPSIS

    use IO::DB;

    my $db = new IO::DB( { db_dsn => 'dbi:Sybase:db01',
                           db_user => 'web',
                           db_pass => 'password' } );

    # Note the lack of a connect!

    my $rows = $db->sql_rows( 'select count(*) from mytable' );

    foreach my $row (@$rows) {
       print $row->{value}, "\n";
    }

    my $hash = $db->sql_hash( 'select name, count(*)
                               from mytable
                               group by name' );

    foreach my $key (keys(%$hash)) {
       print "$key is $hash{$key}\n";
    }

DESCRIPTION

The IO::DB library was created and is intended as a convenience library. It works by reducing clutter in your code caused by using the same redundant code. It also works under the philosophy of intelligent code. That is, let me tell you to do something and let the code figure out the prerequisits. This is in part responsible for the lack of an explicit connect function. It is also responsible for the currently incomplete quote function. Those who are adventurous may poke around and try it out.

Back to the topic of connecting, the library will automatically connect to the database the first time you issue a sql statement. If for some reason you need some functionality tied to dbh, you can access it through the dbh member like this:

   $db->{dbh}->quote( $mycolumndata );

Note that if you haven't executed any sql, this will not work. If you find a case where you do need an explicit connect, simply call the private _connect function like so:

   $db->_connect();

Features eventually slated include an improved 'quote' function which looks at the table and determines if a field needs quoting or not. All of this information will of course be cached to limit the additional load on the database that this will inevidably cause.

METHODS

new

    The new function creates a new instance of the IO::DB object.  It
    should be passed a configuration parameter either through a hash
    or through a configuration object resembling a hash.  The three
    parameters in the configuration are:

       db_dsn  - the DSN string you would normally pass to DBI
       db_user - the username to log into the database with
       db_pass - the password to use or undef if no password

sql_do

    The sql_do function simply privides a wrapper around the DBI 'do'
    statement.  Other than this, it does nothing.  Simply pass the
    sql to execute as the first parameter.

        $db->sql_do("delete from mytable where inactive='Y'");

sql

    The sql function works by wrapping around a prepare statement
    and executing the passed sql.  It supports using paramaters
    (1, 2, 3, ... or ?, ?, ?,...) for the sql.  Coming enhancements
    include caching sth handles to improve performance.

        my $sth = $db->sql( "select count(*) from mytable" );

    -or-

        my $sth = $db->sql( "select count(*) from mytable
                             where a=? and b=?", $a, $b );

sql_rows

    The sql_rows function behaves much like the sql statement, except
    that instead of returning the $sth object, it will instead return
    a reference to an array containing the result set.  Each row will
    have it's values contained within a hash.  Care should be
    taken with this function as large result sets will undoubtedly
    kill the performance of your computer.

        my  $rows = $db->sql_rows( 'select foo, bar from mytable' );

        foreach my $row (@$rows) {
           print "$row->{foo}, $row->{bar}\n";
        }

sql_hash

    The sql_hash function is useful for returning two-column
    result sets as a hash rather than as a set of rows.  It again
    behaves in much the same manner as the sql function does.

quote

    WARNING: THIS FUNCTION MAY NOT FUNCTION PROPERYLY FOR YOU.
    It is currenty specific to SQL Server and Sybase.

    The quote function is useful for quoting data prior to insertion.
    It has the nice trate that it does datatype lookups on tables
    so you don't have to know what to quote and what not to.  HOWEVER
    it currently will quote functions as though they are strings with
    the notable exception of the getdate() function.

AUTHOR

David Bialac <dbialac@yahoo.com>

VERSION

IO::DB version 0.1, released on 22 June 2005.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2003-2005 David Bialac. All Rights Reserved.

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser Public License or the Perl Artistic License at your discression.

cpanm IO::DB

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install IO::DB