sybperl-l Archive

From: Jeff Williams <Jeffrey dot L dot Williams at mci dot com>
Subject: Question on Results from a Select
Date: Sep 18 1998 6:12PM

All,

I am just beginning to use SybPerl.  I have successfully connected to my 
database.  However, I have a question on testing the results from an "sql ( 
select...)" style statement.

I have a process that will need to insert values to a table.  However, I 
want to check that the value is not in the table first. So I end up with 
this:

	...

	$d = new Sybase::DBlib $user, $passwd;

	$d->dbuse ("database");

	$ref = $d->sql("select * from table where column = value");


After properly dereferencing $ref, I want to make sure that it is pointing 
to either value or "nothing".  It is the "nothing" part that I am having 
trouble with.  I have tried using defined, checking against null, etc but 
to no avail.  I have even tried playing with 
"$Sybase::DBlib::Att{"dbNullIsUndef"} = FALSE;" but that doesn't work 
either.

Am I totally off base or can someone help me with this?

Thanks in advance.

Jeff W.