# alternative handling schematic (untested)

use strict;
use warnings;

our $Inject = { # sort datatypes into groups
    tinytext => text,
    text => text,
    int => int,
    tinyint => int,
    etc.
}

our $Dispatch = { # define the dispatch code per group
    text => sub { my $self = shift; etc. },
    int => sub { my $self = shift; etc. ),
    etc.
}

sub dispatch { # dispatch by unsorted datatype
    my $self = shift;
    $self -> { $Dispatch -> { $Inject -> { lc( $self -> { TYPE })}}}( @_ );
}