MySQL comes with 2 basic interfaces: the libmysqlclient library, which provides C level access to mysql, and the mysql program, which provides a "human interface" to mysql (and which uses libmysqlclient itself).

When you're programming against an external program/system like a database, you generally want a precise and well-documented API, which means you use the the provided API and not try to hack the human interface if at all possible.

The DBI / DBD::mysql library is and has been THE standardized and supported interface for using libmysqlclient from perl for more than a decade. There is no other perl/mysql interface that's as well supported and fully functional. The old Msql/Mysql modules are ages behind the current functionality and Net::MySQL seems to be still in beta.


In reply to Re: Advantage of using DBI by Joost
in thread Advantage of using DBI by bichonfrise74

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.