You could ask for a table of array_ref's. fetchall_arrayref.

$tbl_ary_ref = $sth->fetchall_arrayref;
$tbl_ary_ref = $sth->fetchall_arrayref( $slice );
$tbl_ary_ref = $sth->fetchall_arrayref( $slice, $max_rows  );
[download]

Or perhaps, another way, @ary = $sth->fetchrow_array;
Might want to look at the hashref returning methods also.

I haven't come across the need to "backup". But with methods that return arrays of results, you can do that or process them even perhaps out of order. But I like sundialsvc4's idea of just getting the query "right" so you don't have to do that.