The simplest way to get the field names of a specific table is use the statement handle's NAME attribute:

my $sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT * FROM $table WHERE 1=0");
$sth->execute;
my @fields = @{$sth->{NAME}};
$sth->finish;
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Note, most DBDs only populate NAME after the execute, and you need the finish() if you don't actually fetch rows. DBI also provides the table_info() and column_info() methods. Also, if there are commands like EXPLAIN in your variant of SQL, DBI will happily pass those along to your RDBMS.

updateAlso note that if portablity is a concern, use $sth->{NAME_lc} or $sth->{NAME_uc} instead of $sth->{NAME}. That way you'll get the field names in the same case from all RDBMSs.