MySQL in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Name

can()

Synopsis

$handle->can($method_name)

This function returns true if the method named is implemented by the driver. You can use this method within a program to determine whether a method for a handle is available. In the following example, after starting the program and setting the database and statement handles, we use the can() method:

...
my @methods = qw(fetchrow_array fetchrow_arrays);

foreach $method(@methods) {
  if($sth->can($method)) { print "\$sth->$method is implemented.\n"; }
  else { print "\$sth->$method is not implemented.\n\n"; }
}

Here are the results from running this part of the program. Notice that the second, fictitious method named is not available:

$sth->fetchrow_array is implemented.
$sth->fetchrow_arrays is not implemented.