When to use single quotes, double quotes, and back ticks in MySQL

I am trying to learn the best way to write queries. I also understand the importance of being consistent. Until now, I have randomly used single quotes, double quotes, and back ticks without any real thought.

Example:

$query = 'INSERT INTO table (id, col1, col2) VALUES (NULL, val1, val2)';

Also, in the above example, consider that "table," "col[n]," and "val[n]" may be variables.

What is the standard for this? What do you do?

I've been reading answers to similar questions on here for about 20 minutes, but it seems like there is no definitive answer to this question.

 Answers

Backticks are to be used for table and column identifiers, but are only necessary when the identifier is a MySQL reserved keyword, or when the identifier contains whitespace characters or characters beyond a limited set (see below) It is often recommended to avoid using reserved keywords as column or table identifiers when possible, avoiding the quoting issue.

Single quotes should be used for string values like in the VALUES() list. Double quotes are supported by MySQL for string values as well, but single quotes are more widely accepted by other RDBMS, so it is a good habit to use single quotes instead of double.

MySQL also expects DATE and DATETIME literal values to be single-quoted as strings like '2001-01-01 00:00:00'. Consult the Date and Time Literals documentation for more details, in particular alternatives to using the hyphen - as a segment delimiter in date strings.

So using your example, I would double-quote the PHP string and use single quotes on the values 'val1', 'val2'. NULL is a MySQL keyword, and a special (non)-value, and is therefore unquoted.

None of these table or column identifiers are reserved words or make use of characters requiring quoting, but I've quoted them anyway with backticks (more on this later...).

Functions native to the RDBMS (for example, NOW() in MySQL) should not be quoted, although their arguments are subject to the same string or identifier quoting rules already mentioned.

Backtick (`)
table & column ───────┬─────┬──┬──┬──┬────┬──┬────┬──┬────┬──┬───────┐
                      ↓     ↓  ↓  ↓  ↓    ↓  ↓    ↓  ↓    ↓  ↓       ↓
$query = "INSERT INTO `table` (`id`, `col1`, `col2`, `date`, `updated`) 
                       VALUES (NULL, 'val1', 'val2', '2001-01-01', NOW())";
                               ↑↑↑↑  ↑    ↑  ↑    ↑  ↑          ↑  ↑↑↑↑↑ 
Unquoted keyword          ─────┴┴┴┘  │    │  │    │  │          │  │││││
Single-quoted (') strings ───────────┴────┴──┴────┘  │          │  │││││
Single-quoted (') DATE    ───────────────────────────┴──────────┘  │││││
Unquoted function         ─────────────────────────────────────────┴┴┴┴┘    

Variable interpolation

The quoting patterns for variables do not change, although if you intend to interpolate the variables directly in a string, it must be double-quoted in PHP. Just make sure that you have properly escaped the variables for use in SQL. (It is recommended to use an API supporting prepared statements instead, as protection against SQL injection).

// Same thing with some variable replacements
// Here, a variable table name $table is backtick-quoted, and variables
// in the VALUES list are single-quoted 
$query = "INSERT INTO `$table` (`id`, `col1`, `col2`, `date`) VALUES (NULL, '$val1', '$val2', '$date')";

Prepared statements

When working with prepared statements, consult the documentation to determine whether or not the statement's placeholders must be quoted. The most popular APIs available in PHP, PDO and MySQLi, expect unquoted placeholders, as do most prepared statement APIs in other languages:

// PDO example with named parameters, unquoted
$query = "INSERT INTO `table` (`id`, `col1`, `col2`, `date`) VALUES (:id, :col1, :col2, :date)";

// MySQLi example with ? parameters, unquoted
$query = "INSERT INTO `table` (`id`, `col1`, `col2`, `date`) VALUES (?, ?, ?, ?)";

Characters requring backtick quoting in identifiers:

According to MySQL documentation, you do not need to quote (backtick) identifiers using the following character set:

ASCII: [0-9,a-z,A-Z$_] (basic Latin letters, digits 0-9, dollar, underscore)

You can use characters beyond that set as table or column identifiers, including whitespace for example, but then you must quote (backtick) them.

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(There are good answers above regarding the SQL nature of your question, but this may also be relevant if you are new to PHP.)

Perhaps it is important to mention that PHP handles single and double quoted strings differently...

Single-quoted strings are 'literals' and are pretty much WYSIWYG strings. Double-quoted strings are interpreted by PHP for possible variable-substitution (backticks in PHP are not exactly strings; they execute a command in the shell and return the result).

Examples:

$foo = "bar";
echo 'there is a $foo'; // There is a $foo
echo "there is a $foo"; // There is a bar
echo `ls -l`; // ... a directory list

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Basically in Mysql, There are these kinds of identifier are used in query ` ," ,' and () .

1. " or ' use for enclosing the string like values "26-01-2014 00:00:00" or '26-01-2014 00:00:00' . These identifier use only for string not aggregate function like now() or sum ,max etc.
2. ` use for enclosing table or table column e.g. select column_name from table_name where id='2'
3. () are use only for just enclose parts of query e.g. select column_name from table_name where (id='2' and gender='male') or name='rakesh' .

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In combination of PHP and MySQL, double quotes and single quotes make your query-writing time so much easier.

$query = "INSERT INTO `table` (`id`, `col1`, `col2`) VALUES (NULL, '$val1', '$val2')";

Now, suppose you are using a direct post variable into the MySQL query then, use it this way:

$query = "INSERT INTO `table` (`id`, `name`, `email`) VALUES (' ".$_POST['id']." ', ' ".$_POST['name']." ', ' ".$_POST['email']." ')";

This is the best practice for using PHP variables into MySQL.

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If table cols and values are variables then there are two ways:

With double quotes "" the complete query:

$query = "INSERT INTO $table_name (id, $col1, $col2)
                 VALUES (NULL, '$val1', '$val2')";

Or

 $query = "INSERT INTO ".$table_name." (id, ".$col1.", ".$col2.")
               VALUES (NULL, '".$val1."', '".$val2."')";

With single quotes '':

$query = 'INSERT INTO '.$table_name.' (id, '.$col1.', '.$col2.')
             VALUES (NULL, '.$val1.', '.$val2.')';

Use back ticks `` when a column/value name is similar to a MySQL reserved keyword.

Note: If you are denoting a column name with a table name then use back ticks like this:

`table_name`. `column_name` <-- Note: exclude . from back ticks.

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Besides all of the (well-explained) answers, there hasn't been the following mentioned and I visit this Q&A quite often.

In a nutshell; MySQL thinks you want to do math on its own table/column and interprets hyphens such as "e-mail" as e minus mail.

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Disclaimer: So I thought I would add this as an "FYI" type of answer for those who are completely new to working with databases and who may not understand the technical terms described already.