Syntax:
SELECT col_name [, col_name] ...
    INTO var_name [, var_name] ...
    table_expr

SELECT ... INTO syntax enables selected columns to be stored directly
into variables. The statement must retrieve only a single row. If it is
possible that the statement may retrieve multiple rows, you can use
LIMIT 1 to limit the result set to a single row.

URL: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/select-into-statement.html

