My understanding of the OP's question was that this wasn't a "soft failure" situation. This was an out-and-out "Bad Thing"™ kind of failure. Exceptions aren't for everyone - this is true. However, a recommended method of working with DBI is to use RaiseError and eval/$@ blocks.

The reason to defer to a function is that this method can now be used by multiple scripts / modules in multiple situations, providing the same handling in all installs for a given company. "Efficient" can mean multiple things. In my case, I look for efficiency in developer time. I am almost always less concerned with CPU/RAM efficiency1, because they almost always cost less than the equivalent developer time.

  1. Except, of course, in the pathological case where the tradeoff is grossly prejudiced against the hardware. It's a standard maximization problem that all first-year calculus students learn to solve.

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We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Then there are Damian modules.... *sigh* ... that's not about being less-lazy -- that's about being on some really good drugs -- you know, there is no spoon. - flyingmoose

I shouldn't have to say this, but any code, unless otherwise stated, is untested

In reply to Re^4: improve ugly flow control by dragonchild
in thread improve ugly flow control by perrin

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