Yes, that is indeed cool, but don't let your boss catch you using that. DBI has a method that will return a column for you:

my @companies = @{$dbh->selectcol_arrayref('
   SELECT company FROM company_public
')};
[download]

jeffa

L-LL-L--L-LL-L--L-LL-L--
-R--R-RR-R--R-RR-R--R-RR
F--F--F--F--F--F--F--F--
(the triplet paradiddle)