I previously wrote that I am studying for the MySQL 5.6 exam, and that I’m less confident in my skills as a database developer. When I went through the list of topics in the exam, one thing I knew I would have to study is stored programs.

So first, some definitions. From the manual:

Stored programs include these objects:

• Stored routines, that is, stored procedures and functions. A stored procedure is invoked using the CALL statement. A procedure does not have a return value but can modify its parameters for later inspection by the caller. It can also generate result sets to be returned to the client program. A stored function is used much like a built-in function. you invoke it in an expression and it returns a value during expression evaluation.
• Triggers. A trigger is a named database object that is associated with a table and that is activated when a particular event occurs for the table, such as an insert or update.
• Events. An event is a task that the server runs according to schedule.

So a stored program is the broader name applied to code that runs in the database. A procedure is different to a function because it is executed via a call statement and can modify input parameters rather than just returning a value. Check.

The next point I have to look at is creation and executing stored procedures and functions. That’s covered on this manual page:

mysql> delimiter //

mysql> CREATE PROCEDURE dorepeat(p1 INT)
    -> BEGIN
    ->   SET @x = 0;
    ->   REPEAT SET @x = @x + 1; UNTIL @x > p1 END REPEAT;
    -> END
    -> //
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> delimiter ;

mysql> CALL dorepeat(1000);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT @x;
+------+
| @x   |
+------+
| 1001 |
+------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> CREATE FUNCTION hello (s CHAR(20))
mysql> RETURNS CHAR(50) DETERMINISTIC
    -> RETURN CONCAT('Hello, ',s,'!');
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT hello('world');
+----------------+
| hello('world') |
+----------------+
| Hello, world!  |
+----------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

I also need to know how to implement error handling within a stored procedures. This is actually improved a lot in 5.6 with the addition of GET DIAGNOSTICS. Using the example from the manual page:

CREATE PROCEDURE do_insert(value INT)
BEGIN
  -- Declare variables to hold diagnostics area information
  DECLARE code CHAR(5) DEFAULT '00000';
  DECLARE msg TEXT;
  DECLARE rows INT;
  DECLARE result TEXT;
  -- Declare exception handler for failed insert
  DECLARE CONTINUE HANDLER FOR SQLEXCEPTION
    BEGIN
      GET DIAGNOSTICS CONDITION 1
        code = RETURNED_SQLSTATE, msg = MESSAGE_TEXT;
    END;

  -- Perform the insert
  INSERT INTO t1 (int_col) VALUES(value);
  -- Check whether the insert was successful
  IF code = '00000' THEN
    GET DIAGNOSTICS rows = ROW_COUNT;
    SET result = CONCAT('insert succeeded, row count = ',rows);
  ELSE
    SET result = CONCAT('insert failed, error = ',code,', message = ',msg);
  END IF;
  -- Say what happened
  SELECT result;
END;

So we DECLARE A CONTINUE HANDLER (manual pages here and here) and then optionally use GET DIAGNOSTICS for more fine-grained error information. We can also return an error using the SIGNAL functionality (manual page here).