Well, Sometimes I m checking values like that..

my $sth = $dbh->prepare(qq{...});
$sth->execute();
if($sth->rows){ #If handler has affected rows

}
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OR

my $sth = $dbh->prepare(qq{...});
$sth->execute();
while(my $row = $sth->fetchrow_hashref()){ #just do something if $sth 
+can return any records

}
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There is more then one way to do (c) ))) Yuo can also try my $hash = $sth->fetchrow_hashref() || undef;