In all other DBMS, the variable names have a distinctive character to differentiate between variables and column names:
Example: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) 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;