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Programming the Perl DBI Database programming with Perl

By Alligator Descartes, Tim Bunce
First Edition  February 2000 
Pages: 364
ISBN 10: 1-56592-699-4 | ISBN 13: 9781565926998
starstarstarstarstar (Average of 7 Customer Reviews)

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Book description

The primary interface for database programming in Perl is DBI. 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. The book explains the architecture of DBI, shows you how to write DBI-based programs, and reveals both DBI's nuances and the peculiarities of each individual DBD. This is the definitive book for database programming in Perl.
Full Description

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.

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Programming the Perl DBI Review,  July 13 2001
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by dave   [Respond | View]

This is while I buy Oreilly books. This is THE book on DBI, but also is an excellent book on databases in general, and teaches you some Perl along the way. Includes a huge DBI doc section from Bunce. One of the best books I have ever bought.




Programming the Perl DBI Review,  February 16 2001
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by Russ Roberts   [Respond | View]



Has been an invaluable reference on my degree CGI project. To be honest, the book could really use a few more examples.

If your using DBI - I can recommend this book!


Programming the Perl DBI Review,  October 30 2000
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by Hector Sandoval   [Respond | View]



One week ago I was completely lost in the Perl DBI ocean. I read here and there but I could not find what I was looking for.

Then I found this book. For me it was like finding a boat in th emiddle of that ocean. Easy to read (with some minor print mistakes) and with a clear language. Simply.... I like it!

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Programming the Perl DBI Review,  August 26 2000
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by Todd Derenne   [Respond | View]

This book presented necessary information on how to interact with databases using Perl. The introductionary chapters presented "known" Perl methods for writing and reading data. It prompted my getting out "Learning Perl" to have a Perl resource on hand to follow the text. About Perl DBI, there are really surprisingly few statements to learn and use. I'm very seriously looking at sources of data that can be easily put in database format and made usable with the DBI. The statement formats and how they are implemented were presented quite completely and were backed by pretty complete explanations and examples.


Programming the Perl DBI Review,  July 11 2000
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by Eric Lorenz   [Respond | View]

What a fantastic resource. Made quick work of a
fairly complex topic and probably lightened the
traffic on the author's website. If you need to
crank out quick code for database access, get this
book!


Programming the Perl DBI Review,  May 31 2000
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by Bernardo Gonzalez   [Respond | View]

The book is excellent, the dbi module is a solid foundation for inexpensive industrial ecommerce solutions, but the DBD ODBC at least in my case does not work with Microsoft Access 2000, and that is to bad, because Ms Access is the most commonly adopted and inexpensive semi industrial database available. I belive also that the book needs more complete code examples.


Programming the Perl DBI Review,  May 15 2000
Rating: StarStarStarStarStar
Submitted by Cat LeDevic   [Respond | View]

The only moan I have is that it didn't come out earlier.

The shop where I work asked me to cost a project using Perl as the back end for a T1 sales feed into an Oracle DB. They wanted to know if they could buy a package to do this. After a little research, I fell over the DBI. They were amazed at the "cost", and delighted with the speed.

I finally got the book about a week ago. Lo and behold, it also covered flat files. A large part of this shop's income comes from a custom doc library, flat files exported from many different DBs. So not only did the book aid with optimising the script I'd already written for the Oracle interface, but it's going to make all our lives easier for the next release of their commercial app.



Programming the Perl DBI Review,  April 09 2000
Submitted by Daryle Dianis   [Respond | View]



Totally cool! I was using the Learning Perl and mySQL books and this was like finding the motherload. It helped me tie things together, plus it has some good programming pointers.


Programming the Perl DBI Review,  March 16 2000
Submitted by ashley jones   [Respond | View]



Great book, well written. I like how it takes you from basic text file databases all the way to sql based databases. I've only worked with perl for 3-4 months now and I can clearly understand the way the author is explaining his subject.


Programming the Perl DBI Review,  December 08 1999
Submitted by Randy Jay   [Respond | View]



Well done. This is DBI demystified. The new user of DBI will be well served by "Programming the Perl DBI". This is a README.First!


Media reviews

"...explains the nuances of programming for many different databases and show show to cover all the bases at once using Perl...This book is a must-have for the corporate systems administrator who need to coordinate projects that require multiple teams of programmers."
--Jon Holman, UnixReview, Dec 19, 2001

"Not since the first edition of the Llama book have I read a Perl book with the combination of technical excellence and delightful prose found in O'Reilly & Associates' new 'Programming the Perl DBI.' The two most important names in DBI, Tim Bunce (DBI's creator) and Alligator Descartes (the first one other than Tim to work on DBI drivers) have produced a book accessible to database beginners, useful to experienced Perl hackers, and perhaps delightful to read for the DBI pioneers of whom Alligator (the lead author) says 'struggled through untold and undocumented obstacles to actually implement DBI drivers.'"
--brian d. foy, Perl Mongers, March 2001

"If you need to do serious data mangling-for example writing database-driven web front ends, or porting tables from one server to another-this book is a potential lifesaver."
--Linux Format, July 2001

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