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

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

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

       o       HTML format, as used in CGI binaries

       o       postscript, to be piped into lpr or something similar

       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
	       general 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 will include th ability set the string format.

AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT

       This module is Copyright (c) 1997, 1998

	   Jochen Wiedmann
	   Am Eisteich 9
	   72555 Metzingen
	   Germany

	   Email: joe@ispsoft.de
	   Phone: +49 7123 14887

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

SEE ALSO

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

perl v5.8.0							    2002-11-29							    DBI::Format(3)