I separate out the actual communication with the database from the processing of the result set. So, I have a do_select() function that is (cut'n'pasted from production code)

sub do_select
{
    my $self = shift;
    my %params = @_;
    $params{params} ||= [];
                                                                      
+          
    my $results;
    eval {
        my $sth = $self->dbh->prepare_cached(
            $params{sql},
        );
                                                                      
+          
        $sth->execute(
            @{$params{params}},
        );
                                                                      
+          
        $results = $sth->fetchall_arrayref( {} );
    }; if ($@) {
        warn $@, "\n$params{sql}\n@{$params{params}}\n";
        return;
    }
                                                                      
+          
    if (UNIVERSAL::isa($params{inflater}, 'CODE'))
    {
        my @results = $params{inflater}->($results);
                                                                      
+          
        return (
            wantarray
                ? @results
                : $results[0]
        );
    }
    else
    {
        return $results;
    }
}
[download]

The function takes three parameters, two of which are optional. The sql parameter is the SQL statement you want executed. params is an optional array reference of the parameters to that statement. (You are using placeholders, right?) If you pass an inflater parameter, it will call that function, passing in the returned value from the fetchrow_arrayref({}) call.

Assumptions:

• $self->dbh will return a database handle.
• That $dbh was created with the following call:

  $dbh = DBI->connect( $connect_string, $user, $password, { PrintError =
  +> 0, RaiseError => 1 } );
  [download]

Now, the inflater is passed an arrayref of hashes. Do with it what you will. if you don't pass in an inflater, that AoH is passed back to the caller of do_select().