i think coolmichael explained is pretty well... but if you want to dump all your information into an array before starting to work and avoiding a while loop altogether, try this:
note: coolmichael, you forgot the semicolon at the end of your code ;)
$dsn = "DBI:mysql:yip;db.yip.com";
$dbh = DBI->connect($dsn,'me','pass');
$sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT company FROM company_public;");
$sth->execute();
$companies = $sth->fetchall_arrayref; #a reference to an array of arra
+ys of references to each row
$dbh->disconnect;
foreach $row (@$companies) {
($company) = @$row;
print "$company\n"; #just printing it out for fun
}
if your starting out new with mysql and perl... this tutorial should help you a lot:
perlguy