INF: Assignment of Empty Results Set Does Not Set Variable

Last reviewed: April 3, 1997
Article ID: Q107561

The information in this article applies to:

  - Microsoft SQL Server version 4.2 for OS/2
  - Microsoft SQL Server version 4.2

SUMMARY

If a local variable is set by the results of a SELECT statement which returns no rows, the value currently stored in the local variable will remain unchanged.

MORE INFORMATION

An example of this behavior would be the following statement:

   declare @var int
   select @var = 5
   select @var = dbid from sysdatabases where name = "does not exist"
   select @var

The above query will return 5 as the results of the final SELECT statement. However, if a local variable is set by a query which explicitly returns NULL, the value of the local variable will be set to NULL.

Additional query words: 4.20 Transact-SQL
Keywords : kbother SSrvTrans
Version : 4.2
Platform : OS/2 Windows

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Last reviewed: April 3, 1997
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