<p>I know that with mysql you can write SQL statements into a .sql file and run the file from the mysql command line like this:</p>

<pre><code>mysql&gt; source script.sql
</code></pre>

<p>How do I pass a variable to the script? For example, if I want to run a script that retrieves all the employees in a department, I want to be able to pass in the number of the department as a variable.</p>

<p>I am not trying to run queries through a shell script. There are simple queries I run from the mysql command line. I'm tired of retyping them all the time, and writing a shell script for them would be overkill.</p>

Like this:
```
```
set @department := 'Engineering';
```
```
Then, reference
```
@department
```
wherever you need to in script.sql:
```
```
update employee set salary = salary + 10000 where department = @department;
```
```