tomazos has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am familiar with how to use DBI to do a complex query and multi-record prepare/execute/fetch sequence. What I would like to know is how to use it to do something very simple such as ask the database what it thinks is the current date.

The way I know how to do it at the moment is: 

    $sth = $dbh->prepare('select current_date()');
    $sth->execute();
    my ($current_date) = $sth->fetchrow_array();
    $sth->finish();

[download]

Is there a function in DBI which would do the equivilant thing but like this:

    my $current_date = $dbh->THEFUNCTION('select current_date()');

Is there an existing function like THEFUNCTION above in DBI? If not, what is the closest you can come? Am I missing something?

Cheers. -Andrew

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Minimal DBI?
by VSarkiss (Monsignor) on Apr 11, 2002 at 18:23 UTC

    This should work, though I haven't tested it: $current_date = $dbh->selectrow_array('select current_date()'); The DBI document mentions that this function will return the first field of the first row if called in scalar context, though I've never used it like that....

[reply]
[d/l]
      It works. Thank you very much. -Andrew.
[reply]
Re: Minimal DBI?
by Juerd (Abbot) on Apr 11, 2002 at 18:30 UTC

    Please have a look at my DBIx::Simple. 

    use DBIx::Simple;

my $db = DBIx::Simple->connect( ... );

my ($current_date) = $db->query('select current_date()')->list;

    [download]

    Yes, I reinvent wheels.

[reply]
[d/l]
      There is also of course EZDBI. The next rev should incorporate DBIx::Connect (compatible) functionality.

      --
      perl -pe "s/\b;([mnst])/'\1/mg"

[reply]

Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom