INF: Assignment of Empty Results Set Does Not Set Variable (107561)

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.1
Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.5
Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.51
Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.51 SP2
Microsoft Windows NT Server 3.51 SP5
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 SP6
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 SP6a
Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 SP4
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.1
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.5
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.51
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.51 SP2
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 3.51 SP5
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 SP6
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 SP6a
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 SP4
Microsoft SQL Server 4.2x
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (all editions)

This article was previously published under Q107561

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.

Modification Type:	Minor	Last Reviewed:	2/22/2005
Keywords:	kbother KB107561