Stored Procedures implemented 2004-01-29:


Summary of what's implemented:

  - SQL PROCEDUREs/FUNCTIONs (CREATE/DROP)
  - CALL
  - DECLARE of local variables
  - BEGIN/END, SET, CASE, IF, LOOP, WHILE, REPEAT, ITERATE, LEAVE
  - SELECT INTO local variables
  - "Non-query" FUNCTIONs only
  - Prepared SP caching
  - CONDITIONs and HANDLERs
  - Simple read-only CURSORs.
  - SHOW CREATE PROCEDURE/FUNCTION and SHOW PROCEDURE/FUNCTION STATUS


Summary of Not Yet Implemented:

  - SQL statements using tables (like SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE etc) in FUNCTIONs
  - External languages
  - Access control
  - SQL-99 COMMIT (related to BEGIN/END)
  - FOR-loops
  - CASCADE/RESTRICT for ALTER and DROP
  - ALTER/DROP METHOD (as it implies User Defined Types)
  - SIGNAL and RESIGNAL, and UNDO handlers


List of what's implemented:

  - CREATE PROCEDURE|FUNCTION name ( args ) characteristics body
    where characteristics is:
      LANGUAGE SQL |
      [NOT] DETERMINISTIC |
      SQL SECURITY [DEFINER|INVOKER] |
      COMMENT string
    However the DETERMINISTIC setting is not currently used.

  - ALTER PROCEDURE|FUNCTION name characteristics
    CASCADE/RESTRICT is not implemented.
    characteristics is:
      COMMENT string |
      SQL SECURITY [DEFINER|INVOKER] |
      NAME newname

  - DROP PROCEDURE|FUNCTION [IF EXISTS] name
    CASCADE/RESTRICT is not implemented.

  - CALL name (args)
    OUT and INOUT parameters are also works for user variables ("global"
    variables) - i.e., if a procedure is defined as:
      CREATE PROCEDURE foo(OUT p INT) ...;
    a call like:
      CALL foo(@x);
    will set @x to the output value.

  - Function/Procedure body:
    - BEGIN/END
      Is parsed, but not the real thing with (optional) transaction
      control, it only serves as block syntax for multiple statements (and
      local variable binding).
      Note: Multiple statements requires a client that can send bodies
            containing ";". This is handled in the CLI clients mysql and
	    mysqltest with the "delimiter" command. Changing the end-of-query
	    delimiter ";" to for instance "|" allows ";" to be used in the
	    routine body.
    - SET of local variables
      Implemented as part of the pre-existing SET syntax. This allows an
      extended syntax of "SET a=x, b=y, ..." where different variable types
      (SP local and global) can be mixed. This also allows combinations
      of local variables and some options that only make sense for
      global/system variables; in that case the options are accepted but
      ignored.
    - The flow control constructs: CASE, IF, LOOP, WHILE, ITERATE and LEAVE
      are fully implemented.
    - SELECT ... INTO local variables (as well as global session variables)
      is implemented. (Note: This is not SQL-99 feature, but common in other
      databases.)
    - A FUNCTION can have flow control contructs, but must not contain
      an SQL query/statement, like SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, etc. The reason
      is that it's hard to allow this is that a FUNCTION is executed as part
      of another query (unlike a PROCEDURE, which is called as a statement).
      The table locking scheme used makes it difficult to allow "subqueries"
      during FUNCTION invokation.
    - SPs are cached, but with a separate cache for each thread (THD).
      There are still quite a few non-reentrant constructs in the lexical
      context which makes sharing prepared SPs impossible. And, even when
      this is resolved, it's not necessarily the case that it will be faster
      than a cache per thread. A global cache requires locks, which might
      become a bottleneck. (It would save memory though.)
    - CONDITIONs and HANDLERs are implemented, but not the SIGNAL and
      RESIGNAL statements. (It's unclear if these can be implemented.)
      The semantics of CONDITIONs is expanded to allow catching MySQL error
      codes as well. UNDO handlers are not implemented (since we don't have
      SQL-99 style transaction control yet).
    - Simple read-only CURSORs are implemented, but not yet any of the
      optional arguments to DECLARE (SCROLL, SENSITIVE, etc) or FETCH
      (NEXT, PRIOR, etc). Cursors are ASENSITIVE, READ-ONLY, non-SCROLLing.
      (The additional syntax will be added for completeness, but for the
       most part unsupported with the current underlying cursor mechanism.)
      N.B. The current implementation is temporary and only works within a
        stored procedure, and may not perform well for very large result sets.
        A "real" cursor implementation is under development; this will replace
        the current one when it's finished.

  - SHOW procedures and functions
    SHOW CREATE PROCEDURE|FUNCTION <name>
      returns the definition of a routine.
    SHOW PROCEDURE|FUNCTION STATUS [LIKE <pattern>]
      returns characteristics of routines, like the name, type, creator,
      creation and modification dates, etc.