DBI::Format(3) User Contributed Perl Documentation DBI::Format(3)

NAME
       DBI::Format - A package for displaying result tables

SYNOPSIS
         # create a new result object
         $r = DBI::Format->new('var1' => 'val1', ...);

         # Prepare it for output by creating a header
         $r->header($sth, $fh);

         # In a loop, display rows
         while ($ref = $sth->fetchrow_arrayref()) {
           $r->row($ref);
         }

         # Finally create a trailer
         $r->trailer();

DESCRIPTION
       THIS PACKAGE IS STILL VERY EXPERIMENTAL. THINGS WILL
       CHANGE.

       This package is used for making the output of DBI::Shell
       configurable.  The idea is to derive a subclass for any
       kind of output table you might create. Examples are

       ·       a very simple output format as offered by
               DBI::neat_list().  "AVAILABLE SUBCLASSES".

       ·       a box format, as offered by the Data::ShowTable
               module.

       ·       HTML format, as used in CGI binaries

       ·       postscript, to be piped into lpr or something sim-
               ilar

       In the future the package should also support interactive
       methods, for example tab completion.

       These are the available methods:

       new(@attr)
       new(\%attr)
               (Class method) This is the constructor. You'd
               rather call a subclass constructor. The construcor
               is accepting either a list of key/value pairs or a
               hash ref.

       header($sth, $fh)
               (Instance method) This is called when a new result
               table should be created to display the results of
               the statement handle $sth. The (optional) argument
               $fh is an IO handle (or any object supporting a
               print method), usually you use an IO::Wrap object
               for STDIN.

               The method will query the $sth for its NAME,
               NUM_OF_FIELDS, TYPE, SCALE and PRECISION
               attributes and typically print a header. In gen-
               eral you should not assume that $sth is indeed a
               DBI statement handle and better treat it as a hash
               ref with the above attributes.

       row($ref)
               (Instance method) Prints the contents of the array
               ref $ref. Usually you obtain this array ref by
               calling $sth->fetchrow_arrayref().

       trailer (Instance method) Once you have passed all result
               rows to the result package, you should call the
               trailer method. This method can, for example print
               the number of result rows.

AVAILABLE SUBCLASSES
       First of all, you can use the DBI::Format package itself:
       It's not an abstract base class, but a very simple default
       using DBI::neat_list().

       Ascii boxes

       This subclass is using the Box mode of the Data::ShowTable
       module internally. Data::ShowTable(3).

       Raw

       Row is written without formating.  Columns returned in
       comma or user defined separated list.

       String

       Row is written using a string format.  Future releases may
       include the ability set the string format, if someone con-
       tributes it.

AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT
       This module is Copyright (c) 1997, 1998

           Jochen Wiedmann
           Am Eisteich 9
           72555 Metzingen
           Germany

           Email: 
           Phone: +49 7123 14887

       The DBD::Proxy module is free software; you can redis-
       tribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl
       itself.

SEE ALSO
       DBI::Shell(3), DBI(3), dbish(1)

perl v5.6.1                 2001-08-25             DBI::Format(3)

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