Using cursor to auto create tables - mysql

Question

For fun I am messing with phpmyadmin to get myself familiarized with sql but I am stuck at a issue. I am trying to make it so I can automate the organization of employees into tables based on department. I have a procedure I have been working on to use a different table that lists all the departments into a cursor and uses the cursor to fill in the blanks of a create table as query. But when I try to run the creation of the procedure phpmyadmin errors out saying
1064 - 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 '' at line 3
but in my code line 3 is just BEGIN. What do I need to do to make this work?
CREATE PROCEDURE deptOrganize()
BEGIN
DECLARE counting INT DEFAULT 0;
DECLARE location VARCHAR(MAX);
DECLARE curs1 CURSOR SELECT Department FROM departments;
OPEN curs1;
WHILE counting < 15 DO
FETCH curs1 INTO location;
CREATE TABLE location AS
SELECT * FROM employees
WHERE employees.Department = location ;
END WHILE;
END;

Answer 1

You can't use a variable for the table name in CREATE TABLE. You have to create dynamic SQL with the PREPARE statement.
You also need to use the DELIMITER directive to change the query delimiter from ;, so you can use that as the statement delimiter within the procedure.
And you forgot to increment counting, so you have an infinite loop.
DELIMITER $$
CREATE PROCEDURE deptOrganize()
BEGIN
DECLARE counting INT DEFAULT 0;
DECLARE curs1 CURSOR SELECT Department FROM departments;
OPEN curs1;
WHILE counting < 15 DO
FETCH curs1 INTO #location;
SET #sql = CONCAT('CREATE TABLE ', #location, ' AS
SELECT * FROM employees
WHERE employees.Department = ?') ;
PREPARE stmt FROM #sql;
EXECUTE stmt USING #location;
DEALLOCATE PREPARE stmt;
SET counting = counting + 1;
END WHILE;
END$$