…
my $sth = $dbh->prepare("show tables") or &bail($DBI::errstr);
my $rv = $sth->execute or &bail($DBI::errstr);
while ( ( my $table_name ) = $sth->fetchrow_array ) {
  $sth2 = $dbh->prepare("describe $table_name") or die print "Can't do select: $DBI::errstr";
  $rv2 = $sth2->execute or die print "Can't execute the query: $DBI::errstr";
  while (($field_, $type_, $null_,$key_, $default_, $extra_) = $sth2->fetchrow_array) {
	#stuff with cols and then rows.
  }
}
…

##</code><code>##

…
# Get a list of the tables
my @table_names;
eval {
    @table_names = @{$dbh->selectcol_arrayref("SHOW TABLES")};
    1;
} or die "Couldn't retrieve list of MySQL tables: $DBI::errstr";

# Get data from each table
my (@tables, $table);
eval {
    foreach $table (@table_names) {
        # Record how the table is layed out
        my $layout = $dbh->selectall_arrayref("DESCRIBE $table");
        # Store the data in a 2D array reference
        my @fields = map ${$_}[0], @{$layout};
        my $data = $dbh->selectall_arrayref("SELECT " .
                                            (join ',', @fields) .
                                            " FROM $table");
        push @tables, [$layout, $data];
    }
    1;
} or die "Failed while obtaining data from $table: $DBI::errstr";
…