CODEWITHSUNDEEP
mysql
jamzsabb
jamzsabb

Reputation: 1154

DECLARE keyword simply won't work

I've got an incredibly simple statement that won't work for some reason.

I'm trying to do a FOR loop:

DECLARE counter INT DEFAULT 2;
WHILE counter < 8
....
SET counter = counter + 1;

Incredibly basic, yet I get an error when trying to run the DECLARE statement. I tried using a user variable, which worked but then the WHILE statement wouldn't work

SET @counter = 2;
WHILE @counter <8
....
SET @counter = @counter + 1;

Is there a system variable that I may have changed that would cause this sort of behavior? This is really frustrating, as everywhere I look indicates I'm doing it correctly. I can literally copy paste code from other solutions and it won't work for me.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 224

Answers (1)

Brian Dewhirst
Brian Dewhirst

Reputation: 307

Is your code inside of a stored procedure? If not, you'll have to create a stored procedure to use these features.

More generally, what problem are you trying to solve? Often, the better solution in a database environment looks more like a query than like a loop.

The documentation for DECLARE indicates it must be used between begin...end, and the documentation for begin...end is used inside stored procedures and functions.

Also, the syntax for WHILE statements is:

...
WHILE (some_condition) DO
    some_commands
END WHILE
...

You're missing the DO and END WHILE

Upvotes: 3

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