Which Perl database interface should I use?

Question

Is CPAN DBI the best database interface to use in Perl for general database use? Are there some better options?

Answer 1

If you're just looking for low-level database access—you feed it any SQL string (optionally with place-holders and bind values) and it runs your query and gives you back the results—then yes, DBI is your best bet, by far.

If you want a higher-level interface (i.e., one that requires little or no use of raw SQL in your code) then there are several ORMs (object-relational mappers) available for Perl. Check out the ORM page at the Perl Foundation's Perl 5 wiki for more information and links. (If you want help choosing among them or have specific questions, you could narrow the focus of this question or perhaps post another one.)