Select closest numerical value with MySQL query

Question

This is probably easier than I am making it, but basically what I need to do is select the row that has the closest number in a column as a specified value. For example:

Answer 1

How would you handle tie breakers? Because this will only take the first:

  SELECT t.col
    FROM TABLE t
ORDER BY ABS(t.col - @val)
   LIMIT 1

Index safe alternative:

  SELECT xt.col
    FROM (SELECT t.col,
                 ABS(t.col - @val) 'diff'
            FROM TABLE t) xt
ORDER BY xt.diff
   LIMIT 1