Here is the deal guys. I am using DBI module with Oracle 8.1.7. (first timer) What i have is just an average web based interface for an oracle backend.
Two qestions:

1. How to handle my problem fields (empty fields?).
2. How to check if a record exists.

Question 1:
The problem is that when i try to pull in my data from the table my program crashes on the first field that is not defined.( i don't know if its a prblem with (NULL => undef ) or somthing else.

I have seen people use DBI::neat(undef) to handle similar thing and i tried that also with no luck, i still get "use of uninitialized value" message.
Here is what I have till now : (which by the way works good on records that have "all" fields filled.)

## connect to DB

## Run my SQL statements

while (@row = $sth->fetchrow_array) {

$employee_id                    = $row[0];
$last_name                      = $row[1];
$first_name                     = $row[2];
$cell_phone_number              = $row[3];
$email                          = $row[15];
$information_date               = $row[17];

### clean up for web## eq "");
$last_name                      = " " if ($last_name eq "");
$first_name                     = " " if ($first_name eq "");
$cell_phone_number              = " " if ($cell_phone_number eq "
+");
$email                          = " " if ($email eq "");
$information_date               = " " if ($information_date eq ""
+);

## then
print "$PRINT the "STUFF" retrieved";


## disconnect
[download]

##somthing like so

check if record exists {
    if not present{
        &add_new;
    } else {
        print " RECORD EXISTS";
    }
}
[download]