Return value from MySQL stored procedure

Question

So I've finally decided to get around to learning how to use stored procedures, and although I do have them working, I'm unsure if I'm doing it correctly - aka. the best way. So here's what I've got.

Three procedures: TryAddTag, CheckTagExists, and AddTag.

TryAddTag is the procedure that is my intermediary between other code (eg. PHP, etc...) and the other two procedures, so this is the one that gets called.

TryAddTag

DELIMITER //
 CREATE PROCEDURE TryAddTag(
  IN tagName VARCHAR(255)
 )

 BEGIN

 -- Check if tag already exists
 CALL CheckTagExists(tagName, @doesTagExist);

 -- If it does not exist, add it
 IF @doesTagExist = FALSE THEN
  CALL AddTag(tagName);
 END IF;

END //
DELIMITER ;

AddTag

DELIMITER //
 CREATE PROCEDURE AddTag(
  IN tagName VARCHAR(255)
 )
 BEGIN

 INSERT INTO
  tags
 VALUES(
  NULL,
  tagName
 );

END //
DELIMITER ;

CheckTagExists

DELIMITER //
 CREATE PROCEDURE CheckTagExists(
  IN
   tagName VARCHAR(255),
  OUT
   doesTagExist BOOL
 )
 BEGIN

 -- Check if tag exists
 SELECT
  EXISTS(
   SELECT
    *
   FROM
    tags
   WHERE
    tags.NAME = tagName
  )
 INTO
  doesTagExist;

END //
DELIMITER ;

My problems stem from this and use of @doesTagExist.

-- Check if tag already exists
CALL CheckTagExists(tagName, @doesTagExist);

Is the the correct way to use one of these variables? And/or, how can I use a DECLARE'd variable to store the result of CheckTagExists within TryAddTag? I expected something along the lines of

...
DECLARE doesTagExist BOOL;
SET doesTagExist = CheckTagExist('str');
...

or something like that...

Answer 1

your stored procedure is a little over-engineered for my liking - keep it simple :)

MySQL

drop table if exists tags;
create table tags
(
tag_id int unsigned not null auto_increment primary key,
name varchar(255) unique not null
)
engine=innodb;

drop procedure if exists insert_tag;

delimiter #

create procedure insert_tag
(
in p_name varchar(255)
)
proc_main:begin

declare v_tag_id int unsigned default 0;

    if exists (select 1 from tags where name = p_name) then
        select -1 as tag_id, 'duplicate name' as msg; -- could use multiple out variables...i prefer this
        leave proc_main;
    end if;

    insert into tags (name) values (p_name);

    set v_tag_id = last_insert_id();

    -- do stuff with v_tag_id...

    -- return success
    select v_tag_id as tag_id, 'OK' as msg; 

end proc_main #

delimiter ;

PHP

<?php

ob_start(); 

try{

    $conn = new mysqli("localhost", "foo_dbo", "pass", "foo_db", 3306);

    $conn->autocommit(FALSE); // start transaction

    // create the tag

    $name = 'f00';

    $sql = sprintf("call insert_tag('%s')", $conn->real_escape_string($name));

    $result = $conn->query($sql);
    $row = $result->fetch_array();
    $result->close();
    $conn->next_result();

    $tagID = $row["tag_id"]; //  new tag_id returned by sproc

    if($tagID < 0) throw new exception($row["msg"]);

    $conn->commit(); 

    echo sprintf("tag %d created<br/>refresh me...", $tagID);

}
catch(exception $ex){
    ob_clean(); 
    //handle errors and rollback
    $conn->rollback();
    echo sprintf("oops error - %s<br/>", $ex->getMessage()); 
}

// finally
$conn->close();
ob_end_flush();
?>

Answer 2

Stored PROCEDURES can return a resultset. The last thing you SELECT in a stored procedure is available as a resultset to the calling environment.. Stored FUNCTIONS can return only a single result primitive.
You may also mark your parameters as INOUT parameters.