MySQL: @variable vs. variable. What's the difference?

Question

In another question I posted someone told me that there is a difference between:

@variable

and:

variable

Answer 1

In MySQL, @variable indicates a user-defined variable. You can define your own.

SET @a = 'test';
SELECT @a;

Outside of stored programs, a variable, without @, is a system variable, which you cannot define yourself.

The scope of this variable is the entire session. That means that while your connection with the database exists, the variable can still be used.

This is in contrast with MSSQL, where the variable will only be available in the current batch of queries (stored procedure, script, or otherwise). It will not be available in a different batch in the same session.