# set up an SQL statement my $sql_statement = "select * from customer"; my $sth = $dbh->prepare($sql_statement) || die "Could not prepare: " . $dbh->errstr(); # execute it $sth->execute() || die "Could not execute: " . $dbh->errstr(); # how many rows did we get? my $num_rows = $sth->rows(); my $num_fields = $sth->{'NUM_OF_FIELDS'}; # close the sql query, if we don't want it any more. $sth->finish();