Author: Alligator Descartes & Tim Bunce
ISBN:
Publisher: O'Reilly
Reviewed by: Mark Fowler
I have mixed feelings about this book. To be honest, I haven't really read it properly. Let me explain why....
The book starts off with a section describing the concepts of databases and then moves on to talking about other options other than DBI to the programmer, such as flat files, storeable and Data::Dumper and even DBM files. Unfortunately, as the stressed out programmer I have neither the time or inclination to read this. Nor do I care about the SQL tutorial. I learned SQL back in uni, and what I really need is the one thing missing from the chapter...a summary of the commands by name.
Moving on through the book by page 87 I get the first example of some actual perl code that deals with the DBI. My impatience (apparently a virtue) has caused me to skip all the sections describing the model of how the DBI abstractions work without any real example. And now I don't instantly understand them. Maybe it's just me.
Nice section on handling errors...now this is something all database people need to read, including the section on using eval and handling errors. Finally something useful advice that I can't get just by reading the pod. Section on quoting. Nice. If I just slow down a little and start reading properly...
Now the really important bit of the book. The bits I actually bothered to make time to read, The bit I wish I could just rip out and stick in it's own little book. Chapter 5 and Chapter 6...The basic hows and whys of the many fetch methods that DBI uses. If you've ever used DBI then you'll know there's about a zillion ways to pull out data...and this section describes which one to use and why. Oh and stuff on dealing with weird data types. And how to close handles prematurely. In fact, pretty much all of the important "Now how do I do *that* questions" - this stuff really *isn't* in the pod.
Moving swiftly on we get onto some discussion about ODBC. The section is heavily prejudiced and tells you what (and really only just what) you need to know to survive with ODBC if you've been using DBI. If you like this or not is really up to you...more skipping on my part.
The latter half of the book is a collection of appendices. Included is the DBI specification that tells you exactly how each command works which is just a more readable version that the pod. YMMV...I tend like having both thid dead tree summary and a pod guide open at the same time as they complement each other well.
The last apendices is a collection of information on the different DBD (data base drivers) that handle the connection to the databases and the peculiarities that go with each of these. Nice if you need it. The MySQL drivers are notable by their absence.
Okay, back to why I haven't read this book properly. Don'y you see? Half the book I didn't really need to read. But it was hard to find the bits that I did and would have been really entertaining and useful.
In conclusion I think that Programming The Perl DBI is a good book that could have benefited tremendously from some judicious editing. Lots of content needs to be cut out and reworded to be more concise. In particular the book could do with a better structure (and more whitespace) that makes things easier to find and 'flick to'. Or maybe I'm just looking for a different book.