I have the following subroutine:

#Returns a table's last row number
#input: table name; rownumber
#return: last row number
#side effects: none

sub lastRowNum {
    my $tableRef = shift ( @_ );
    my $rowName = shift ( @_ );
        
    my $qryAns="";
    $qry = "SELECT $tableRef.$rowName FROM $tableRef ORDER by $tableRe
+f.$rowName DESC LIMIT 1 "; #MySQL certified
    (my $Ok, $qryAns)= dbTools::MySQLqry( $qry, "get last row number f
+rom $tableRef" );
    if( !$Ok ) {
        print STDOUT $qryAns. "Failed to get last $rowName from table 
+". $tableRef. "<br>\n";
        return 0;
    }  elsf {
        my $rowRef = $qryAns->fetchrow_hashref;
        return $$rowRef{'$rowName'};
    }
}
[download]

I manually verified that the MySQL call works, and the dbTools::MySQLqry works perfectly for at least a dozen other subroutines. The problem is that I am getting a null return. I can't tell what the problem is, I am new to perl though. PS: the O'Reilly Perl book mentions an elsif operator, but when I try it, I get a syntax error (using Eclipse as an IDE), and only elsf works.

---

---

• Are you posting in the right place? Check out Where do I post X? to know for sure.
• Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags. Currently these include the following:

  <code> <a> <b> <big> <blockquote> <br /> <dd> <dl> <dt> <em> <font> <h1> <h2> <h3> <h4> <h5> <h6> <hr /> <i> <li> <nbsp> <ol> <p> <small> <strike> <strong> <sub> <sup> <table> <td> <th> <tr> <tt> <u> <ul>

• Snippets of code should be wrapped in <code> tags not <pre> tags. In fact, <pre> tags should generally be avoided. If they must be used, extreme care should be taken to ensure that their contents do not have long lines (<70 chars), in order to prevent horizontal scrolling (and possible janitor intervention).
• Want more info? How to link or How to display code and escape characters are good places to start.