Meaning of ; in queries

Question

What is the meaning of ; at the end of queries?

For example; what is the difference between:

select 1
select 2

and

select 1;
select 2

Possible duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/710683/when-should-i-use-semicolons-in-sql-server — Jan, Oct 31 '12 at 12:19

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:55

"From a SQLServerCentral.Com article by Ken Powers:

The Semicolon

The semicolon character is a statement terminator. It is a part of the ANSI SQL-92 standard, but was never used within Transact-SQL. Indeed, it was possible to code T-SQL for years without ever encountering a semicolon.

Usage

There are two situations in which you must use the semicolon. The first situation is where you use a Common Table Expression (CTE), and the CTE is not the first statement in the batch. The second is where you issue a Service Broker statement and the Service Broker statement is not the first statement in the batch."

this is from When should I use semicolons in SQL Server? which might be what you are looking for

which is in turn "straight a cut and paste"

I think this might be stack overflows version of a joke.

edit: ; are also after merge statements

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 31 '12 at 12:19

2

Using the ; is the correct way to end one statement and start another. If you do not use the ; you may get unexpected results

answered Oct 31 '12 at 12:19

Rob S

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>>If you do not use the ; you may get unexpected results<< Can you give an example of such 'unexpected results'? Or you mean error when there is no semicolon before CTE or after MERGE? – Igor Borisenko Oct 31 '12 at 12:35
The answer provided by Remus covers what I meant, it is always better to include it even if you dont think its absolutely necessary. – Rob S Oct 31 '12 at 13:11
OK. I didn't know that, thank you. I just got used to not using semicolons at my current job, though first time it was weird. Though for two years I haven't met any problems with that. – Igor Borisenko Oct 31 '12 at 13:48

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 31 '12 at 12:17

1

It is to denote the end of an Sql statement.

answered Oct 31 '12 at 12:17

Joe G Joseph

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 31 '12 at 12:50

Giving a list of situation that are 'required' is always prone to omission. There are other situations besides commont table expression and SSB which the parser cannot handle w/o semicolon terminating the previous statement, like THROW or WITH XMLNAMESPACES and the list is bound to grow.

The correct answer is: semicolon terminators are required and should always be put whenever writing new code. Period. Omitting them is tolerated, but is on the official deprecation list:

Deprecated feature: Transact-SQL Not ending Transact-SQL statements with a semicolon
Replacement: End Transact-SQL statements with a semicolon ( ; ).

Ignoring this deprecation warning is on your own peril.

Meaning of ; in queries

4 Answers4