SELECT INTO Variable in MySQL DECLARE causes syntax error?

Question

I´d like to SELECT a single value into a variable. I´d tried to following:

DECLARE myvar INT(4);

-- immediately returns some syntax error.<

Answer 1

I am using version 6 (MySQL Workbench Community (GPL) for Windows version 6.0.9 revision 11421 build 1170) on Windows Vista. I have no problem with the following options. Probably they fixed it since these guys got the problems three years ago.

/* first option */
SELECT ID 
INTO @myvar 
FROM party 
WHERE Type = 'individual';

-- get the result
select @myvar;

/* second option */
SELECT @myvar:=ID
FROM party
WHERE Type = 'individual';


/* third option. The same as SQL Server does */
SELECT @myvar = ID FROM party WHERE Type = 'individual';

All option above give me a correct result.

Answer 2

These answers don't cover very well MULTIPLE variables.

Doing the inline assignment in a stored procedure causes those results to ALSO be sent back in the resultset. That can be confusing. To using the SELECT...INTO syntax with multiple variables you do:

SELECT a, b INTO @a, @b FROM mytable LIMIT 1;

The SELECT must return only 1 row, hence LIMIT 1, although that isn't always necessary.

Answer 3

It is worth noting that despite the fact that you can SELECT INTO global variables like:

SELECT ... INTO @XYZ ...

You can NOT use FETCH INTO global variables like:

FETCH ... INTO @XYZ

Looks like it's not a bug. I hope it will be helpful to someone...

Answer 4

Per the MySQL docs DECLARE works only at the start of a BEGIN...END block as in a stored program.

Answer 5

You maybe miss the @ symbol before your value,like that select 'test' INTO @myValue;