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

You don't need to DECLARE a variable in MySQL. A variable's type is determined automatically when it is first assigned a value. Its type can be one of: integer, decimal, floating-point, binary or nonbinary string, or NULL value. See the User-Defined Variables documentation for more information:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/user-variables.html

You can use SELECT ... INTO to assign columns to a variable:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/select-into-statement.html

Example:

mysql> SELECT 1 INTO @var;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT @var;
+------+
| @var |
+------+
| 1    |
+------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)