Can I run a loop in MySQL without using a procedure/function?

Question

For testing, is it possible to run a loop from MySQL workbench or similar tool? I tried but got an error.

If it is possible, please supply a simple example I can run.

Answer 1

There's a trick with limited use-cases that is "loop-like".

I wanted to create a large (1~2 million) row table of random integers for a test:

INSERT INTO test_table (num) VALUES(ROUND(RAND() * 1E6));

-- calling this will insert once for every row in test_table
INSERT INTO test_table (num)
SELECT ROUND(RAND() * 1E6)
FROM test_table;

So I quickly just kept doubling the number of rows until I had what I needed.