Programming the Perl DBI

Perl

Perl is a very high-level programming language originally developed in the 1980s by Larry Wall. Perl is now being developed by a group of individuals known as the Perl5-Porters under the watchful eye of Larry. One of Perl’s many strengths is its ability to process arbitrary chunks of textual data, known as strings , in many powerful ways, including regular-expression string manipulation. This capability makes Perl an excellent choice for database programming, since the majority of information stored within databases is textual in nature. Perl takes the pain of manipulating strings out of programming, unlike C, which is not well-suited for that task. Perl scripts tend to be far smaller than equivalent C programs and are generally portable to other operating systems that run Perl with little or no modification.

Perl also now features the ability to dynamically load external modules , which are pieces of software that can be slotted into Perl to extend and enhance its functionality. There are literally hundreds of these modules available now, ranging from mathematical modules to three-dimensional graphics-rendering modules to modules that allow you to interact with networks and network software. The DBI is a set of modules for Perl that allows you to interact with databases.

In recent years, Perl has become a standard within many companies by just being immensely useful for many different applications, the “Swiss army knife of programming languages.” It has been heavily used ...