my %rec;
my $sth = $dbh->prepare ("select * from foo");
$sth->execute;
$sth->bind_columns (\@rec{@{$sth->{NAME_lc}}});
while ($sth->fetch) {
    print "foo.c_foo = $rec{c_foo}\n";
    }

##</code><code>##

cmpthese (5, {
    hashref     => sub {
        my $sth = $dbh->prepare ("select * from ll_go");
        $sth->execute;
        1 while my $h = $sth->fetchrow_hashref;
        },
    bindcol     => sub {
        my %rec;
        my $sth = $dbh->prepare ("select * from ll_go");
        $sth->execute;
        $sth->bind_columns (\@rec{@{$sth->{NAME_lc}}});
        1 while $sth->fetch;
        },
    })

=>

perl bench.pl
          Rate hashref bindcol
hashref 1.31/s      --    -76%
bindcol 5.49/s    320%      --