Question

I had to make a really small and simple script that would fill a table with string values according to these criteria:

• 2 characters long
• 1st character is always numeric (0-9)
• 2nd character is (0-9) but also includes “X”
• Values need to be inserted into a table on a database

The program would execute:

insert into table (code) values ('01');
insert into table (code) values ('02');
insert into table (code) values ('03');
insert into table (code) values ('04');
insert into table (code) values ('05');
insert into table (code) values ('06');
insert into table (code) values ('07');
insert into table (code) values ('08');
insert into table (code) values ('09');
insert into table (code) values ('0X');

And so on, until the total 110 values were inserted.

My code (just to accomplish it, not to minimize and make efficient) was:

use strict;
use DBI;
my ($db1,$sql,$sth,%dbattr);
%dbattr=(ChopBlanks => 1,RaiseError => 0);
$db1=DBI->connect('DBI:mysql:','','',\%dbattr);
my @code;
for(0..9)
{
    $code[0]=$_;
    for(0..9)
    {
        $code[1]=$_;
        insert(@code);
    }
    insert($code[0],"X");
}
sub insert
{
    my $skip=0;
    foreach(@_)
    {
        if($skip==0)
        {
            $sql="insert into table (code) values ('".$_[0].$_[1]."');"; 
            $sth=$db1->prepare($sql); 
            $sth->execute();
            $skip++;
        }
        else
        {
            $skip--;
        }
    }
}
exit;

I’m just interested to see a really succinct & precise version of this logic.

Answer 1

133 characters – non-strict

use DBI;$d=DBI->connect('DBI:mysql','','',{RaiseError=>1});for$a(0..9){for$b(0..9,'X'){$d->do("insert into table values('$a$b')");}}

152 characters – strict

use strict;use DBI;my$d=DBI->connect('DBI:mysql','','',{RaiseError=>1});for my$a(0..9){for my$b(0..9,'X'){$d->do("insert into table values('$a$b')");}}

Legible version of 152 character string:

use strict;use DBI;
my $d=DBI->connect('DBI:Informix:stores','','',{RaiseError=>1});
foreach my $a (0..9)
{
    foreach my $b (0..9, 'X')
    {
        $d->do("insert into table values('$a$b')");
    }
}

Thought process

Given:

create table table(code char(2) not null);

And the Perl:

use strict;
use DBI;
my $d=DBI->connect('DBI:mysql','','',{RaiseError=>1});
my $h=$d->prepare("insert into table(code)values(?)");
foreach my $a (0..9)
{
    foreach my $b (0..9, 'X')
    {
        $h->execute("$a$b");
    }
}

I tested with Informix, so the connect string I actually used was “DBI:Informix:stores“.

This solution is still readable – and because of the RaiseError, error-proofed (unless you want to add a transaction too).

Code Golfing it, it becomes (182 characters):

use strict;use DBI;my$d=DBI->connect('DBI:mysql','','',{RaiseError=>1});my$h=$d->prepare("insert into table(code)values(?)");for my$a(0..9){for my$b(0..9,'X'){$h->execute("$a$b");}}