Is it possible to have a default parameter for a mysql stored procedure?

Question

I have googled this and keep coming up with \"No it is not possible\" but these posts were dated 2005-2007 so I\'m wondering if this has been changed. A code example:

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Answer 1

Unfortunately, MySQL doesn't support DEFAULT parameter values, so:

CREATE PROCEDURE `blah`
(
  myDefaultParam int DEFAULT 0
)
BEGIN
  -- Do something here
END

returns the error:

ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual
that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use 
near 'DEFAULT 0) BEGIN END' at line 3

To work around this limitation, simply create additional procedures that assign default values to the original procedure:

DELIMITER //

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS blah//
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS blah2//
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS blah1//
DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS blah0//

CREATE PROCEDURE blah(param1 INT UNSIGNED, param2 INT UNSIGNED)
BEGIN
    SELECT param1, param2;
END;
//

CREATE PROCEDURE blah2(param1 INT UNSIGNED, param2 INT UNSIGNED)
BEGIN
    CALL blah(param1, param2);
END;
//

CREATE PROCEDURE blah1(param1 INT UNSIGNED)
BEGIN
    CALL blah2(param1, 3);
END;
//

CREATE PROCEDURE blah0()
BEGIN
    CALL blah1(4);
END;
//

Then, running this:

CALL blah(1, 1);
CALL blah2(2, 2);
CALL blah1(3);
CALL blah0();

will return:

+--------+--------+
| param1 | param2 |
+--------+--------+
|      1 |      1 |
+--------+--------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

+--------+--------+
| param1 | param2 |
+--------+--------+
|      2 |      2 |
+--------+--------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

+--------+--------+
| param1 | param2 |
+--------+--------+
|      3 |      3 |
+--------+--------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

+--------+--------+
| param1 | param2 |
+--------+--------+
|      4 |      3 |
+--------+--------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Then, if you make sure to only use the blah2(), blah1() and blah0() procedures, your code will not need to be immediately updated, when you add a third parameter to the blah() procedure.