Scott, The first step in debugging a problem like this is to have your perl script print out the Update statement and then cut and paste that statement into your usual database frontend and run it. (In oracle it sould be sql*plus, I don't know what it is in MySQL). This will tell you if there's a problem on the database side (like foreign key constraints) or a problem with building your update statement (like is it totally garbled?).
Regards, Tim -----Original Message----- From: NIPP, SCOTT V (SBCSI) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, April 02, 2002 10:40 AM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: UPDATE Statement Problem... Hey guys. I am still quite new to the database world and obviously in need of help. Not sure if I am just stupid, or if there is really very little information to be found concerning UPDATE statements. I am working on a MySQL database with Perl 5.6.0 and the latest DBI version. I am doing fine with connectivity, in that I have INSERT and SELECT statements working fine. My problem is that an UPDATE statement that I have been working with is NOT working. Here is, I hope, the relevant portion of the code. my $test = $dbh->prepare("SELECT * FROM systems WHERE Name ='$name'"); $test->execute (); if ($test) { while (my $ref = $test->fetchrow_hashref ('NAME_lc')) { undef $set; foreach my $key (keys %$ref) { unless ($$key eq $ref->{$key}) { $set .= " , " if $set; $set .= $key . "=$$key"; } } if ($set) { print "$name found in database. Updating information for $name. \n"; print "$set \n"; $dbh->do(q{UPDATE systems SET = $set WHERE Name = $name LIMIT 1}); } else { print "$name found in database to be current. No update necessary. \n"; } } } else { print "$name was NOT found in database. Adding database entry for $name. \n"; $dbh->do("INSERT INTO systems VALUES('$name','$id','$ip','$model','$cpunum','$speed','$os_ver','$mem','$sc si','$fibre','$disks','$size','$tapes','$sa')") or print "Error updating database: ", $dbh->errstr, "\n"; } } This database stores system information. I have written Perl scripts to collect all of this information from the systems, format the output, and FTP it over to the database server. I have no problem INSERTing new systems into the database, the problem I have is UPDATEing existing systems. I know that I could simply DELETE and then INSERT the system again with all of the new information, but this seems a very inelegant way of handling this. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. Scott Nipp Systems Analyst SBC Long Distance (214) 858-1289
