# 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();