>The second example shows how to assign a scalar value from a query, similar to what SqlCommand.ExecuteScalar() does in .NET.

Oh, so then instead of this:

[SELECT [@var1 = CompanyName] FROM Customers WHERE CustomerID = 'ALFKA']

it's doing something like this:

[SELECT @var1 = [CompanyName FROM Customers WHERE CustomerID = 'ALFKA']]

Correct?