Chris Winters

This tutorial will be an introduction to the DBI, its philosophy and general usage. It will have examples from several different databases and show several different applications, including web-based, sysadmin-based (moving or massaging data) and perhaps Perl/Tk-based.

Outline:

• What is the DBI? Compare with other methods of accessing databases.
• Perl 4 vs Perl 5. Modularity is good!
• Database independence: What it does and does not get you
• Basics: Selecting data from a single table, updating and removing data
• Binding: Readable and efficient input and output
• Advanced: Different methods of selecting data
• Traps: Things to watch out for
• Questions

Each step will be illustrated by examples with code which will be available online beforehand.