DDL vs DML

DDL means "Data Definition Language". SELECT, UPDATE, INSERT belong to DML, which is "Data Modification Language". DDL is all the other commands -- for example, CREATE TABLE.

This is quite easily dealt with; through do().

For example:

$dbh = DBI->connect(...)
$dbh->do(qq{
  create table winnie (
    ille char(1), pu char(2)
  )
}) or die "Could not create table winnie: " . $dbh::errstr;