RaiseError does not stop Perl errors from happening!. When set to 1 will raise a perl error when Oracle raises an error. So in you code above if {RaiseError => 1} you will get an error on line 2 (an Oracle error) with {RaiseError => 0} you will get an error on line 3 (A perl error) You will have to wrap you statments in a eval{ }; block to trap the error. By the way you would be much better off posting your question to dbi-users@perl.org (you don't need to subscribe in order to post, and you won't be automatically subscribed either as very few people use this form for dbi or driver support. dbi-users is where you'll get the best support