kiat, the main advantage of prepare over do is most apparent when executing multiple queries. Quoting from the DBI doc:
The do() method can be used for non repeated non-SELECT statement (or with drivers that don't support placeholders).

I have used both, but find prepare more versatile, especially when using placeholders. And because I want to be as consistent as possible in my coding style, I just stick to prepare for DBI queries. I'll be curious to see how other more XP'd monks reply--always educational.

Check out Paul Dubois's book MySQL and Perl for the Web as he does discuss this topic a bit (I'd quote it, but it's at the office).

Update:
Okay, I stopped by the office, and with apologies to Dubois and New Riders, here's the take on do vs prepare:
• you do have to use the undef as an argument when using placeholders (see jeffa's node above)
• prepare, because of it's reusable query plan, works best when inserting data into a table via a loop
• also because of it's reusable query, prepare can give a performance boost
• use of prepare makes transporting code to other databases easier and more efficient.

But buy the book for all the details--it's invaluable--the title tells it all.

—Brad
"A little yeast leavens the whole dough."

In reply to Re: DBI prepare() vs do() usage by bradcathey
in thread DBI prepare() vs do() usage by kiat

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.