perl mysql get number of columns

Question

Is there a nice simple way to get the amount of columns using perl and mysql? I generate the sql select code so i dont know how many columns are in there. I do have the column section isolated so a regex solution could be simple?

-edit- for the comment below.

"select " . col . " FROM " #more code
col = "a, b, c, d" #how do i find out if theres 4 columns?
query->column_count(); #returns 4
col = "a, b, c.c, d, e, f"
query->column_count(); #return 6 etc.

Answer 1

$column_amount = @row; #i cant believed no one replied

Answer 2

I'm sure there's a DBI method to get the information you seek. But, meh, I don't really feel like looking for it (see comments in other answer).

Answer 3

You can get the list of columns returned in the 'NAME' attribute of your statement.

Here is an example:

 my $query = "SELECT * FROM table";
 my $qr = $dbi->prepare($query);

 $qr->execute();
 my $columns = $qr->{'NAME'};
 printf "%d columns retuned\n", scalar @$columns;