In MariaDB, CURRENT_ROLE() is a built-in function that returns the current role name. The current role determines your access privileges.

The output of SELECT CURRENT_ROLE is equivalent to the contents of the information_schema.ENABLED_ROLES table.

Syntax

The function can be called with or without the parentheses:

CURRENT_ROLE
CURRENT_ROLE()

No arguments are required or accepted.

Example

Here’s an example to demonstrate:

SELECT CURRENT_ROLE();

Result:

+----------------+
| CURRENT_ROLE() |
+----------------+
| NULL           |
+----------------+

In my case, there’s no current role and so NULL is returned.

Let’s add a current role:

SET ROLE analyst;

And run it again:

SELECT CURRENT_ROLE();

Result:

+----------------+
| CURRENT_ROLE() |
+----------------+
| analyst        |
+----------------+

Now, the role we added is the current role.

This example assumes that the role has previously been created.

Without Parentheses

As mentioned, the CURRENT_ROLE() function can be called with or without parentheses.

Here’s an example without parentheses:

SELECT CURRENT_ROLE;

Result:

+--------------+
| CURRENT_ROLE |
+--------------+
| analyst      |
+--------------+

No Arguments are Accepted

Passing any arguments to CURRENT_ROLE() results in an error:

SELECT CURRENT_ROLE(1);

Result:

ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near '1)' at line 1