What is a friendly module that allows querying a MySQL database from Perl?

Searching CPAN yielded so many results I don't know where to start. I need a simple and friendly module for some basic querying.

What is DBI module in Perl used for?

For connecting to and querying a database, Perl provides a module called DBI. DBI is a database interface for communicating with database servers that use Structured Query Language (SQL) to get data. Accessing a Database in Perl generally takes two steps. The DBI module provides an API for database access.

For raw SQL queries, you'll need DBI and DBD::mysql. But I highly recommend that you also install and use DBIx::Class - it'll make your life far easier.

Main database module at CPAN is DBI. All other modules (except very little group) use DBI. DBI has drivers for databases. For MySQL it is called DBD::mysql. With DBI you can write crossdatabase Perl code. Of course you will need to alter SQL code in case you are using DBMS-specific features.

P.S. And look at placeholders.