Different Name Quotes in Databases

Databases employ delimited identifiers to allow the use of table and column names that may contain characters such as whitespace, special characters, international characters, and case-sensitive identifiers. Different databases use various characters for these delimiters.

MySQL

MySQL uses back-quotes by default. However, it supports standard double-quotes when the SQL_MODE is set to ANSI_QUOTES:

SELECT * FROM `my_table`;  // MySQL default
SELECT * FROM "my_table";  // MySQL with ANSI_QUOTES

Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase

These databases use brackets as default delimiters. They also support double-quotes using the following setting:

SELECT * FROM [my_table];  // Default
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON;
SELECT * FROM "my_table";

InterBase and Firebird

These databases require setting the SQL dialect to 3 to use delimited identifiers.

SET SQL DIALECT 3;  // Enable delimited identifiers
SELECT * FROM "my_table";

Other Databases

Most other databases, including standard SQL, use double-quotes as delimited identifiers:

SELECT * FROM "my_table";

By using delimited identifiers, database users can create table and column names that are not otherwise supported by SQL.