Changes for version 1.06 - 2026-03-22
- Added: doc/ directory with SQL cheat sheets in 21 languages (BM/BN/EN/FR/HI/ID/JA/KM/KO/MN/MY/NE/SI/TH/TL/TR/TW/UR/UZ/VI/ZH) for use as learning materials for international students.
- Fix: col NOT IN (v1, NULL, v2) now returns 0 rows, conforming to SQL standard NULL semantics (result is UNKNOWN for every row when the list contains NULL and the value is not found among non-NULL elements). Previously, NULL values in the list were silently ignored and rows were returned as if NULL were absent. Fixed in all four evaluation paths: compile_tree, eval_expr (where_sub closure), join_select, and compile_where_from_conds (subquery).
- Fix: col NOT IN (SELECT ... FROM empty_table) now correctly returns all rows. Previously the empty subquery was substituted as (NULL), which after the NULL-semantics fix would have produced 0 rows instead of all rows.
- Updated: BUGS AND LIMITATIONS and README revised to document the corrected NOT IN NULL behaviour.
- Updated: t/1015_new_features.t ok9 now asserts 0 rows for NOT IN with NULL in the value list.
- Added: t/0004-perl5compat.t -- dedicated Perl 5.005_03 compatibility checker with 12 tests per .pm file: no 'our', no say/given/state, no my(undef), no defined-or // (with split// exempt), no //=, no yada-yada, no 'when', no \o{}, no wide \x{}, $VERSION self-assignment, warnings stub, CVE-2016-1238 mitigation.
- Changed: test file execution order revised so that source-level checks run before functional tests: 0001-load.t (was 0000) 0002-pod.t (was 0005) 0003-usascii.t (was 0006) 0004-perl5compat.t (new: detailed 5.005_03 compat, including //) 0005-cpan_precheck.t (was 0007) 1001-1016 (unchanged)
- Fix: corrected three occurrences of the defined-or // operator (Perl 5.10+) introduced in 1.06 that caused compilation failures on Perl 5.005_03 (Windows pmake reported 'Global symbol requires explicit package name' errors). Replaced with ternary equivalents.
- Fix: WINDOW functions (OVER clause) now return type='error' with a clear message instead of silently returning undef column values.
- Fix: FOREIGN KEY table-level constraint syntax (FOREIGN KEY (...) REFERENCES ...) is now recognised and silently skipped in CREATE TABLE rather than causing a parse error.
- Fix: begin_work, commit, and rollback now return undef with errstr set rather than crashing with 'method not found'.
- Fix: AutoCommit attribute now returns 1 (previously undef).
- Fix: VARCHAR and CHAR declared sizes are now enforced on INSERT and UPDATE; values longer than the declared size return type='error'. Backward compatible: old schema files without stored declared sizes default to no restriction (treated as VARCHAR(255)).
- Added: t/1016_unsupported.t (56 tests) verifying all of the above.
- Updated: POD, README, and DIFFERENCES FROM DBI revised to document the exact behaviour of each unsupported feature.
- New: col NOT IN (v1, v2, ...) on an indexed column now uses an index complement lookup instead of a full table scan. The engine resolves the exclusion set via the index and returns all other records. NOT IN with NULL in the list falls back to a full scan (SQL semantics: the result is UNKNOWN for every row).
- New: last_insert_id() now accepts the four DBI positional arguments ($catalog, $schema, $table, $field) and ignores them, making the call signature compatible with DBI.
- New: connect() now accepts a dbi:Handy:key=val;... DSN prefix in addition to a plain directory path or bare key=val string.
- New: INSERT INTO dst (...) SELECT ... FROM src now maps columns by name when every destination column name exists in the SELECT result row; falls back to positional order when column names differ.
- Added: t/1015_new_features.t (68 tests) covering all four features.
- Updated: POD, README, and BUGS AND LIMITATIONS revised to reflect the new behaviour; stale limitations removed.
Modules
Pure-Perl flat-file relational database with DBI-like interface