>It is not neccesary.
>
>You can use the @ character before the parameter you pass.
>

This notation -only- works in a function call; it's not usable from a DO statement. By default DO passes everything by reference unless it's overridden with the SET UDFPARMS call; to pass a variable by value in a DO without changing UDFPARMS, enclose it in () to pass the value rather than the variable itself.

>This is a much better way of doing it since using the SET UDFPARAM command is inherently dangerous.