Re: Perl won't eval PgSQL boolean value

On Sun, 02 Sep 2001 20:01:27 -0400, Randall Perry wrote:
> I've got an if statement that checks if a boolean value is true:
>
>     if ($cust_data->{'hold'} eq 't')
>
> But perl will not evaluate the value. $cust_data->{'hold'} is taken from a
> PgSQL boolean field (either t or f). If I use the construct above it tell
> me that 'eq' is not defined thinking it's a string.

Assuming that you're using DBI and DBD::Pg, the problem is that DBD::Pg
returns 1 and 0 for booleans, rather than the expected 't' and 'f'. This
means that if you know you're always going to use Postgres (and that DBD::Pg
isn't going to change), you can simply say:

  if($cust_data->{hold})

However, if you want cross-database portability (and protection from
DBD::Pg's behaviour changing), you have to do this:

  if($cust_data->{hold}=~/[t1]/)

--
    Peter Haworth    pmh@edison.ioppublishing.com
perl -e '$|=s""\rJust another Perl hacker,";s/\w/$&\b#/g;
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    -- Ilmari Karonen, Yanick and Abigail