I hope you've gotten the syntax fixed by now so that it's working -- the replies above are clear enough about what the problem is. Once you have it working, you might think about some "stylistic" improvements:

my @getfields = qw/engine/;
for my $type ( qw/name lable settings/ ) {
    for my $num ( 1 .. 4 ) {
        push @getfields, "$type$num";
    }
}
my $sql = 'select '.
          join( ',', @getfields ).
          ' from special_fields WHERE engine IN ('.
          join( ',', ('?') x scalar @choices ).
          ') AND ('.
          join( ' OR ', map { "settings$_ = 'public'" } 1..4 ).
          ')';

my $sth = $dbh->prepare( $sql );
$sth->execute( @choices );
[download]

Notes:

• "$data" is not a good name for a string that is supposed to store an SQL "select ..." statement;
• having one array to store the names of all the columns being selected can be really handy later;
• maybe the for loop for putting the names into an array is overkill, but it does save you from having to type the same names four times each;
• you really should be using placeholders for variable values that are being plugged into the query, and passing those values when you execute the query;
• formatting the lines of code for legibility in a narrower window can really help.

(update: having seen jdporter's reply, I have to agree -- his version is much easier to read)

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