Perl DBI

In computing, the Perl DBI (DataBase Interface) offers a standardized way for programmers using the Perl language to interface with databases.

Tim Bunce, in collaboration with others, started specifying DBI in 1992. As of 2009 the Perl community maintains DBI across the Internet as a CPAN module in accordance with the Open Source model. DBD (DataBase Driver) modules serve as plug-ins to DBI: this allows programmers to use near-database-independent SQL code in their applications.

The DBI and DBD Perl packages allow Perl programmers to access many database environments in a uniform way. The system implements each supported database environment as a DBD driver, in much the same way that hardware devices from multiple vendors can operate with different CPU platforms. Prospective DBD users can download DBD implementations from the Internet. DBD implementations exist for proprietary products such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, etc. and for free-software databases such as SQLite, PostgreSQL, Firebird, and MySQL.

The latest DBI module for Perl from CPAN can run on a range of operating systems.

See also

• DBIx::Class

External links

• Perl DBI home page
• DBI module documentation on CPAN
• DBD drivers on CPAN