From: Jess Robinson <castaway@desert-island.me.uk>
Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2007 21:13:33 +0000 (+0000)
Subject: Added cookbook recipe for using dual, thanks Richard
X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=16cd5b282a77840ce684f48c5324cfd7418d17ca;p=dbsrgits%2FDBIx-Class-Historic.git

Added cookbook recipe for using dual, thanks Richard
---

diff --git a/lib/DBIx/Class/Manual/Cookbook.pod b/lib/DBIx/Class/Manual/Cookbook.pod
index 0552a03..f953b0d 100644
--- a/lib/DBIx/Class/Manual/Cookbook.pod
+++ b/lib/DBIx/Class/Manual/Cookbook.pod
@@ -920,6 +920,100 @@ of the schema, plus scripts to convert from version 0.1 to 0.2. This
 requires that the files for 0.1 as created above are available in the
 given directory to diff against.
 
+=head2 select from dual
+
+Dummy tables are needed by some databases to allow calling functions
+or expressions that aren't based on table content, for examples of how
+this applies to various database types, see:
+L<http://troels.arvin.dk/db/rdbms/#other-dummy_table>.
+
+Note: If you're using Oracles dual table don't B<ever> do anything
+other than a select, if you CRUD on your dual table you *will* break
+your database.
+
+Make a table class as you would for any other table
+                                                                               
+  package MyAppDB::Dual;
+  use strict;
+  use warnings;
+  use base 'DBIx::Class';
+  __PACKAGE__->load_components("Core");
+  __PACKAGE__->table("Dual");
+  __PACKAGE__->add_columns(
+    "dummy",
+    { data_type => "VARCHAR2", is_nullable => 0, size => 1 },
+  );
+ 
+Once you've loaded your table class select from it using C<select>
+and C<as> instead of C<columns>
+ 
+  my $rs = $schema->resultset('Dual')->search(undef,
+    { select => [ 'sydate' ],
+      as     => [ 'now' ]
+    },
+  );
+ 
+All you have to do now is be careful how you access your resultset, the below
+will not work because there is no column called 'now' in the Dual table class
+ 
+  while (my $dual = $rs->next) {
+    print $dual->now."\n";
+  }
+  Can't locate object method "now" via package "MyAppDB::Dual" at headshot.pl
+line 23.
+ 
+You could of course use 'dummy' in C<as> instead of 'now', or C<add_columns> to
+your Dual class for whatever you wanted to select from dual, but that's just
+silly, instead use C<get_column>
+ 
+  while (my $dual = $rs->next) {
+    print $dual->get_column('now')."\n";
+  }
+ 
+Or use C<cursor>
+ 
+  my $cursor = $rs->cursor;
+  while (my @vals = $cursor->next) {
+    print $vals[0]."\n";
+  }
+ 
+Or use L<DBIx::Class::ResultClass::HashRefInflator>
+ 
+  $rs->result_class('DBIx::Class::ResultClass::HashRefInflator');
+  while ( my $dual = $rs->next ) {
+    print $dual->{now}."\n";
+  }
+ 
+Here are some example C<select> conditions to illustrate the different syntax
+you could use for doing stuff like 
+C<oracles.heavily(nested(functions_can('take', 'lots'), OF), 'args')>
+ 
+  # get a sequence value
+  select => [ 'A_SEQ.nextval' ],
+ 
+  # get create table sql
+  select => [ { 'dbms_metadata.get_ddl' => [ "'TABLE'", "'ARTIST'" ]} ],
+ 
+  # get a random num between 0 and 100
+  select => [ { "trunc" => [ { "dbms_random.value" => [0,100] } ]} ],
+ 
+  # what year is it?
+  select => [ { 'extract' => [ \'year from sysdate' ] } ],
+ 
+  # do some math
+  select => [ {'round' => [{'cos' => [ \'180 * 3.14159265359/180' ]}]}],
+ 
+  # which day of the week were you born on?
+  select => [{'to_char' => [{'to_date' => [ "'25-DEC-1980'", "'dd-mon-yyyy'"
+]}, "'day'"]}],
+ 
+  # select 16 rows from dual
+  select   => [ "'hello'" ],
+  as       => [ 'world' ],
+  group_by => [ 'cube( 1, 2, 3, 4 )' ],
+ 
+ 
+
 =head2 Adding Indexes And Functions To Your SQL
 
 Often you will want indexes on columns on your table to speed up searching. To