MySQL 8.3 Release Notes
The DECLARE statement is used to define various items local to a program:
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Local variables. See Section 15.6.4, “Variables in Stored Programs”.
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Conditions and handlers. See Section 15.6.7, “Condition Handling”.
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Cursors. See Section 15.6.6, “Cursors”.
DECLARE is permitted only inside a BEGIN ... END compound statement and must be at its start, before any other statements.
Declarations must follow a certain order. Cursor declarations must appear before handler declarations. Variable and condition declarations must appear before cursor or handler declarations.