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

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.