The RESULT clause is optional in procedures. Omitting the result clause allows you to write procedures that return different result sets, with different numbers or types of columns, depending on how they are executed.
If you do not use the variable result sets feature, you should use a RESULT clause for performance reasons.
For example, the following procedure returns two columns if the input variable is Y, but only one column otherwise:
CREATE PROCEDURE Names( IN formal char(1) ) BEGIN IF formal = 'y' THEN SELECT Surname, GivenName FROM Employees ELSE SELECT GivenName FROM Employees END IF END;
The use of variable result sets in procedures is subject to some limitations, depending on the interface used by the client application.
When you create a procedure without a RESULT clause and the procedure returns a variable result set, a DESCRIBE of a SELECT statement that references the procedure may fail. To prevent the failure of the DESCRIBE, it is recommended that you include a WITH clause in the FROM clause of the SELECT statement. Alternately, you could use the WITH VARIABLE RESULT clause in the DESCRIBE statement. The WITH VARIABLE RESULT clause can be used to determine if the procedure call should be described following each OPEN statement.