In all other DBMS, the variable names have a distinctive character to differentiate between variables and column names:
Example: SQL Server uses @ MySql uses ? Oracle uses : Firebirdsql uses : It makes it easier to write and manage queries especially in stored procedures. Just compare the below: create stored procedure get_user_for_editing(user_id int, out username varchar) begin select username into @username from users where user_id = @user_id; end; to this mess: create stored procedure get_user_for_editing(user_id int, out username varchar) begin select u.username into get_user_for_editing.username from users u where get_user_for_editing.user_id = get_user_for_editing.user_id; end; Prefixing the variables (ex: p_user_id) makes the application code harder to write as we have a lot of dynamic code that is expecting "user_id" instead of "p_user_id". Is there any plan to add a character to differentiate between variables?
