Where are the selected rows stored using fetchall_arrayref

[Loo, Peter # PHX]

Hi, 
 
I was wondering if someone can tell me how, where and what Perl DBI
stores the data returned from fetchall_arrayref.  For example: if I
issues a SELECT statement such as "select a.col1, b.col2, c.col3 from
someTable1 a, someTable2 b, someTable3 c where someCondition".  From
this I get an array reference.  I understand that the array references
are pointers, but where are these pointers stored.
 
I will be using Perl DBI to dump approximately five billion rows through
a socket to another server where another program will bulk load to a
database server.
 
Here is an example of what I am going to be doing:
 
 
    unless ($arrayref = $sth->fetchall_arrayref()) {
      $MESSAGE = "sub_fetchallArrayref() - $DBI::errstr";
      $STATUS = $FAILURE;
      sub_exit();
      }
 
    my $sock = new IO::Socket::INET->new(PeerPort => $port, Proto =>
$proto, PeerAddr => $node);
    if (!$sock) {
      print STDERR "Unable to open socket to $node at port $port using
protocol $proto.\n";
      return $FAILURE;
      }
 
    foreach $row (@{$arrayref}) {
      $piped = join($delim, @$row);
      $sock->send($piped) || return $FAILURE;
      }
 
My concern is I might run out of memory.  Hope someone can shed some
light.
 
Thanks in advance.
 
Peter


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