unless ($sth->{sql_params_checked}++) {
        # bug in SQL::Statement 1.20 and below causes breakage
        # on all but the first call
        my @req_prm = $stmt->params ();
        my $n_req = @req_prm == 1 && ref $req_prm[0] ? $req_prm[0]->num : scalar @req_prm;
        unless ($n_req == (my $nparm = @$params)) {
            my $msg = "You passed $nparm parameters where $n_req required";
            $sth->set_err ($DBI::stderr, $msg);
            return;
            }
        }