MySQL WHILE Loop: Purpose & Syntax

The WHILE loop statement in MySQL is used to repeatedly execute a block of code until a specific condition is no longer met.

The syntax for a WHILE loop is as follows:

WHILE condition DO
    -- code to be executed
END WHILE;

When a WHILE loop is executed, the condition is first evaluated. If the condition is true (meaning it is satisfied), the code block inside the loop is executed. After executing the code block, the condition is evaluated again. If it is still true, the code block inside the loop continues to be executed, and so on. The loop continues until the condition is false (meaning it is not satisfied), at which point the loop ends.

The purpose of a WHILE loop is to repeatedly execute a section of code based on a specified condition, in order to achieve a need for repetitive processing, such as processing a result set row by row, or looping to insert or update data.