Perl DBI Oracle: Multiple statements

Hi: Not sure if this is the right place to post this question.

My dba has asked to execute a alter statement before the select statement in a perl script. So I need to run the following. Supposedly the alter statement, helps run the select sql run faster.

alter session set db_file_multiblock_read_count = 128;
SELECT ED.utime, ED.info, ED.agent_id FROM EVENT_DATA ED WHERE ED.utime between $period order by ED.utime;

where $period is a string such as "190 and 300".

I tried the following
my $sql = qq{
BEGIN
alter session set db_file_multiblock_read_count = 128;
SELECT ED.utime, ED.info, ED.agent_id FROM EVENT_DATA ED WHERE ED.utime between $period order by ED.utime;
END; };
my $sth = $dbh->prepare($sql);
$sth->execute();

I get the following error
====================
DBD::Oracle::st execute failed: ORA-06550: line 3, column 5:
PLS-00103: Encountered the symbol "ALTER" when expecting one of the following:
begin case declare exit for goto if loop mod null pragma
raise return select update while with <an identifier>
<a double-quoted delimited-identifier> <a bind variable> <<
close current delete fetch lock insert open rollback
savepoint set sql execute commit forall merge
<a single-quoted SQL string> pipe
The symbol "update was inserted before "ALTER" to continue. (DBD ERROR: error possibly near <*> indicator at char 14 in '
BEGIN
<*>alter session set db_file_multiblock_read_count = 128;
SELECT ED.utime, ED.info, ED.agent_id FROM EVENT_DATA ED WHERE ED.utime between 1164650400 and 1164653940 order by ED.utime;
END; ') [for Statement "
BEGIN
alter session set db_file_multiblock_read_count = 128;
SELECT ED.utime, ED.info, ED.agent_id FROM EVENT_DATA ED WHERE ED.utime between 1164650400 and 1164653940 order by ED.utime;
END; "] at /actuate/AcServer/reports_scripts/report_functions.pl line 48.
=========================
Could someone help.
Thanks
Ravi



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