WHILE Loop

[Fuzemmo]

Ok, I feel stupid for having to ask this but I can't seem to make it work. I'm following what appears to be a simple example too.

SET @v1 = 5;
WHILE @v1 > 0 DO
SET @v1 = @v1 - 1;
END WHILE;

I'm betting two errors:
1.
Error Code : 1064
You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'WHILE (@v1 > 0) DO
SET @v1 = @v1 - 1' at line 1

2.
Error Code : 1064
You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'END WHILE' at line 1

It seems that what I'm trying to do is very simple. Am I missing something incredibly simple?

 

[guelphdad]

what version of mysql are you using? THe error you are getting is that you need to upgrade your version of mysql to do this.

 

[Fuzemmo]

5.0.16-nt

If I'm reading the "manual" correctly, my version should be fine.

 

[guelphdad]

Ooops I should have seen, since I had similar problem with something yesterday. Did you change your delimiter to something other than the ; ? because if you didn't then each line is being read individually up until the ; is reached.

Try this:

DELIMITER $$
SET @v1 = 5;
WHILE @v1 > 0 DO
   SET @v1 = @v1 - 1;
END WHILE;

END $$

DELIMITER ;

which says for the purposes of what you are doing, ignore the ; as your delimiter and read everything together as one command until the END $$ shows up.