More Info / SHOW COLUMNS ISSUE

I realize this might be considered a "new topic," and as such, should be its own entry, but since I am working through the task described in the initial message, I thought it would be good to at least start this message here.

So... while plugging away at my own solution, I have found an issue with trying to execute either a "DESCRIBE $table" or "SHOW COLUMNS FROM $table" command. Here is an extracted snippet of code:

        my $rval = '';
        my $sth2 = $dbh->prepare("SHOW COLUMNS FROM $table");
        $sth2->execute() or die 'execute failed';
        if ( $sth2->err )
            { $rval = 'error: [' . $sth2->errstr . ']'; }
        else
            {
            # the "while" line is #151 from the error message...
            while ( my @arr = $sth2->fetchrow_arrayref() )
                { $rval .= '[' . join('|', @arr ) . ']'; }
            }
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At this point, I am simply trying to gather ANYTHING from the command, so, yes, $rval will not have anything truly meaningful in this example.

What I am getting is an unending stream of:

[Tue Jun 18 10:48:43 2013] [error] [client 10.22.50.24] DBD::mysql::st fetchrow_arrayref failed: fetch() without execute() at /var/www/cgi-bin/CaMS2/TableEdit.pm line 151., referer: http://10.22.50.14/CaMS2/index.cgi

I don't need to know how to get a list of column names -- I already have that working. I want "the rest of the story" -- the Type, Null, and Default columns for sure.

mysql> show columns from cmsParms;
+--------+-----------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| Field  | Type      | Null | Key | Default | Extra |
+--------+-----------+------+-----+---------+-------+
| pKey   | char(100) | NO   | PRI | NULL    |       |
| pValue | text      | NO   |     | NULL    |       |
+--------+-----------+------+-----+---------+-------+
2 rows in set (0.01 sec)
[download]

So that's my current issue. I'm currently hacking at it. When I get a solution, I'll post it here. If, however, anyone has already crossed this bridge, and can toss me some hints/tips/tricks/etc, I would greatly appreciate it!!!