CREATE PROCEDURE
and CREATE FUNCTION
Syntax
These statements create stored routines. By default, a routine is associated with the default database. To associate the routine explicitly with a given database, specify the name as db_name.sp_name
when you create it.
The CREATE FUNCTION
statement is also used in MariaDB to support UDFs (user-defined functions). See , "Adding New Functions to MySQL". A UDF can be regarded as an external stored function. Stored functions share their namespace with UDFs. See , "Function Name Parsing and Resolution", for the rules describing how the server interprets references to different kinds of functions.
To invoke a stored procedure, use the CALL
statement (see , "CALL
Syntax"). To invoke a stored function, refer to it in an expression. The function returns a value during expression evaluation.
CREATE PROCEDURE
and CREATE FUNCTION
require the CREATE ROUTINE
privilege. They might also require the SUPER
privilege, depending on the DEFINER
value, as described later in this section. If binary logging is enabled, CREATE FUNCTION
might require the SUPER
privilege, as described in , "Binary Logging of Stored Programs".
By default, MariaDB automatically grants the ALTER ROUTINE
and EXECUTE
privileges to the routine creator. This behavior can be changed by disabling the automatic_sp_privileges
system variable. See , "Stored Routines and MariaDB Privileges".
The DEFINER
and SQL SECURITY
clauses specify the security context to be used when checking access privileges at routine execution time, as described later in this section.
If the routine name is the same as the name of a built-in SQL function, a syntax error occurs unless you use a space between the name and the following parenthesis when defining the routine or invoking it later. For this reason, avoid using the names of existing SQL functions for your own stored routines.
The IGNORE_SPACE
SQL mode applies to built-in functions, not to stored routines. It is always permissible to have spaces after a stored routine name, regardless of whether IGNORE_SPACE
is enabled.
The parameter list enclosed within parentheses must always be present. If there are no parameters, an empty parameter list of ()
should be used. Parameter names are not case sensitive.
Each parameter is an IN
parameter by default. To specify otherwise for a parameter, use the keyword OUT
or INOUT
before the parameter name.Note
Specifying a parameter as IN
, OUT
, or INOUT
is valid only for a PROCEDURE
. For a FUNCTION
, parameters are always regarded as IN
parameters.
An IN
parameter passes a value into a procedure. The procedure might modify the value, but the modification is not visible to the caller when the procedure returns. An OUT
parameter passes a value from the procedure back to the caller. Its initial value is NULL
within the procedure, and its value is visible to the caller when the procedure returns. An INOUT
parameter is initialized by the caller, can be modified by the procedure, and any change made by the procedure is visible to the caller when the procedure returns.
For each OUT
or INOUT
parameter, pass a user-defined variable in the CALL
statement that invokes the procedure so that you can obtain its value when the procedure returns. If you are calling the procedure from within another stored procedure or function, you can also pass a routine parameter or local routine variable as an IN
or INOUT
parameter.
The following example shows a simple stored procedure that uses an OUT
parameter:
mysql>delimiter //
mysql>CREATE PROCEDURE simpleproc (OUT param1 INT)
->BEGIN
->SELECT COUNT(*) INTO param1 FROM t;
->END//
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>delimiter ;
mysql>CALL simpleproc(@a);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec) mysql>SELECT @a;
+------+ | @a | +------+ | 3 | +------+ 1 row in set (0.00 sec)
The example uses the mysql client delimiter
command to change the statement delimiter from ;
to //
while the procedure is being defined. This enables the ;
delimiter used in the procedure body to be passed through to the server rather than being interpreted by mysql itself. See , "Defining Stored Programs".
The RETURNS
clause may be specified only for a FUNCTION
, for which it is mandatory. It indicates the return type of the function, and the function body must contain a RETURN
statement. If the value
RETURN
statement returns a value of a different type, the value is coerced to the proper type. For example, if a function specifies an ENUM
or SET
value in the RETURNS
clause, but the RETURN
statement returns an integer, the value returned from the function is the string for the corresponding ENUM
member of set of SET
members.
The following example function takes a parameter, performs an operation using an SQL function, and returns the result. In this case, it is unnecessary to use delimiter
because the function definition contains no internal ;
statement delimiters:
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)
Parameter types and function return types can be declared to use any valid data type. The COLLATE
attribute can be used if preceded by the CHARACTER SET
attribute.
The routine_body
consists of a valid SQL routine statement. This can be a simple statement such as SELECT
or INSERT
, or a compound statement written using BEGIN
and END
. Compound statements can contain declarations, loops, and other control structure statements. The syntax for these statements is described in , "MySQL Compound-Statement Syntax".
MySQL permits routines to contain DDL statements, such as CREATE
and DROP
. MariaDB also permits stored procedures (but not stored functions) to contain SQL transaction statements such as COMMIT
. Stored functions may not contain statements that perform explicit or implicit commit or rollback. Support for these statements is not required by the SQL standard, which states that each DBMS vendor may decide whether to permit them.
Statements that return a result set can be used within a stored procedure but not within a stored function. This prohibition includes SELECT
statements that do not have an INTO
clause and other statements such as var_list
SHOW
, EXPLAIN
, and CHECK TABLE
. For statements that can be determined at function definition time to return a result set, a Not allowed to return a result set from a function
error occurs (ER_SP_NO_RETSET
). For statements that can be determined only at runtime to return a result set, a PROCEDURE %s can't return a result set in the given context
error occurs (ER_SP_BADSELECT
).
USE
statements within stored routines are not permitted. When a routine is invoked, an implicit USE
is performed (and undone when the routine terminates). The causes the routine to have the given default database while it executes. References to objects in databases other than the routine default database should be qualified with the appropriate database name.
db_name
For additional information about statements that are not permitted in stored routines, see "Restrictions on Stored Programs".
For information about invoking stored procedures from within programs written in a language that has a MariaDB interface, see , "CALL
Syntax".
MySQL stores the sql_mode
system variable setting that is in effect at the time a routine is created, and always executes the routine with this setting in force, regardless of the server SQL mode in effect when the routine is invoked.
The switch from the SQL mode of the invoker to that of the routine occurs after evaluation of arguments and assignment of the resulting values to routine parameters. If you define a routine in strict SQL mode but invoke it in nonstrict mode, assignment of arguments to routine parameters does not take place in strict mode. If you require that expressions passed to a routine be assigned in strict SQL mode, you should invoke the routine with strict mode in effect.
The COMMENT
characteristic is a MariaDB extension, and may be used to describe the stored routine. This information is displayed by the SHOW CREATE PROCEDURE
and SHOW CREATE FUNCTION
statements.
The LANGUAGE
characteristic indicates the language in which the routine is written. The server ignores this characteristic; only SQL routines are supported.
A routine is considered "deterministic" if it always produces the same result for the same input parameters, and "not deterministic" otherwise. If neither DETERMINISTIC
nor NOT DETERMINISTIC
is given in the routine definition, the default is NOT DETERMINISTIC
. To declare that a function is deterministic, you must specify DETERMINISTIC
explicitly.
Assessment of the nature of a routine is based on the "honesty" of the creator: MariaDB does not check that a routine declared DETERMINISTIC
is free of statements that produce nondeterministic results. However, misdeclaring a routine might affect results or affect performance. Declaring a nondeterministic routine as DETERMINISTIC
might lead to unexpected results by causing the optimizer to make incorrect execution plan choices. Declaring a deterministic routine as NONDETERMINISTIC
might diminish performance by causing available optimizations not to be used.
If binary logging is enabled, the DETERMINISTIC
characteristic affects which routine definitions MariaDB accepts. See , "Binary Logging of Stored Programs".
A routine that contains the NOW()
function (or its synonyms) or RAND()
is nondeterministic, but it might still be replication-safe. For NOW()
, the binary log includes the timestamp and replicates correctly. RAND()
also replicates correctly as long as it is called only a single time during the execution of a routine. (You can consider the routine execution timestamp and random number seed as implicit inputs that are identical on the master and slave.)
Several characteristics provide information about the nature of data use by the routine. In MySQL, these characteristics are advisory only. The server does not use them to constrain what kinds of statements a routine will be permitted to execute.
CONTAINS SQL
indicates that the routine does not contain statements that read or write data. This is the default if none of these characteristics is given explicitly. Examples of such statements areSET @x = 1
orDO RELEASE_LOCK('abc')
, which execute but neither read nor write data.NO SQL
indicates that the routine contains no SQL statements.READS SQL DATA
indicates that the routine contains statements that read data (for example,SELECT
), but not statements that write data.MODIFIES SQL DATA
indicates that the routine contains statements that may write data (for example,INSERT
orDELETE
).
The SQL SECURITY
characteristic can be DEFINER
or INVOKER
to specify the security context; that is, whether the routine executes using the privileges of the account named in the routine DEFINER
clause or the user who invokes it. This account must have permission to access the database with which the routine is associated. The default value is DEFINER
. The user who invokes the routine must have the EXECUTE
privilege for it, as must the DEFINER
account if the routine executes in definer security context.
The DEFINER
clause specifies the MariaDB account to be used when checking access privileges at routine execution time for routines that have the SQL SECURITY DEFINER
characteristic.
If a user
value is given for the DEFINER
clause, it should be a MariaDB account specified as '
(the same format used in the user_name
'@'host_name
'GRANT
statement), CURRENT_USER
, or CURRENT_USER()
. The default DEFINER
value is the user who executes the CREATE PROCEDURE
or CREATE FUNCTION
or statement. This is the same as specifying DEFINER = CURRENT_USER
explicitly.
If you specify the DEFINER
clause, these rules determine the legal DEFINER
user values:
- If you do not have the
SUPER
privilege, the only legaluser
value is your own account, either specified literally or by usingCURRENT_USER
. You cannot set the definer to some other account. - If you have the
SUPER
privilege, you can specify any syntactically legal account name. If the account does not actually exist, a warning is generated. - Although it is possible to create a routine with a nonexistent
DEFINER
account, an error occurs at routine execution time if theSQL SECURITY
value isDEFINER
but the definer account does not exist.
For more information about stored routine security, see , "Access Control for Stored Programs and Views".
Within a stored routine that is defined with the SQL SECURITY DEFINER
characteristic, CURRENT_USER
returns the routine's DEFINER
value. For information about user auditing within stored routines, see , "Auditing MariaDB Account Activity".
Consider the following procedure, which displays a count of the number of MariaDB accounts listed in the mysql.user
table:
CREATE DEFINER = 'admin'@'localhost' PROCEDURE account_count() BEGIN SELECT 'Number of accounts:', COUNT(*) FROM mysql.user; END;
The procedure is assigned a DEFINER
account of 'admin'@'localhost'
no matter which user defines it. It executes with the privileges of that account no matter which user invokes it (because the default security characteristic is DEFINER
). The procedure succeeds or fails depending on whether invoker has the EXECUTE
privilege for it and 'admin'@'localhost'
has the SELECT
privilege for the mysql.user
table.
Now suppose that the procedure is defined with the SQL SECURITY INVOKER
characteristic:
CREATE DEFINER = 'admin'@'localhost' PROCEDURE account_count() SQL SECURITY INVOKER BEGIN SELECT 'Number of accounts:', COUNT(*) FROM mysql.user; END;
The procedure still has a DEFINER
of 'admin'@'localhost'
, but in this case, it executes with the privileges of the invoking user. Thus, the procedure succeeds or fails depending on whether the invoker has the EXECUTE
privilege for it and the SELECT
privilege for the mysql.user
table.
The server handles the data type of a routine parameter, local routine variable created with DECLARE
, or function return value as follows:
- Assignments are checked for data type mismatches and overflow. Conversion and overflow problems result in warnings, or errors in strict SQL mode.
- Only scalar values can be assigned. For example, a statement such as
SET x = (SELECT 1, 2)
is invalid. - For character data types, if there is a
CHARACTER SET
attribute in the declaration, the specified character set and its default collation is used. If theCOLLATE
attribute is also present, that collation is used rather than the default collation. If there is noCHARACTER SET
attribute, the database character set and collation in effect at routine creation time are used. (The database character set and collation are given by the value of thecharacter-set-database
andcollation_database
system variables.)If you change the database default character set or collation, stored routines that use the database defaults must be dropped and recreated so that they use the new defaults.