Column 'mary' does not exist

Question

i'm doing a simple query here and it returns that column 'Mary' does not exist:

SELECT  telephone.telephonenumber as tel
FROM    person, telephone
WHERE   person.idperson = telephone.idperson
AND person.personname = ‘Mary’;

Can someone explain what can be happening? I don't want Mary as a column, but as a value.

Thanks in advance, Gabriel

BTW, IIRC the ANSI SQL quoting rules are `'single quotes'` for literals, and `"double quotes"` for identifiers (column names, table names, etc) where required to handle spaces, case sensitivity, etc. Following these rules works with most databases, though MySQL requires `SET sql_mode = 'ANSI'` to accept it. That quoting is fine in MS SQL, in PostgreSQL, and in MySQL in ANSI mode. — Craig Ringer, Nov 02 '12 at 14:58
Another very similar question was just posted: http://stackoverflow.com/q/13219121/398670 . BTW, Gabriel, please accept Martin Smith's answer by clicking the tick below the score on his answer. — Craig Ringer, Nov 04 '12 at 14:14
No, it is not a duplicate. I am Brazilian and the other user seems to be from a german-speaking country. Thanks a lot. I tried to accept Martin Smith's answer, but there was that time limit. Now it is accepted. — Gabriel Sotero, Nov 05 '12 at 17:11

score 15 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 02 '12 at 13:52

15

Use plain single quotes to delimit a string literal 'Mary' not smart quotes ‘Mary’

answered Nov 02 '12 at 13:52

Martin Smith

3

This is a good reason not to edit SQL in word processors. They love to "help" you and "fix" your "mistakes". – Craig Ringer Nov 02 '12 at 14:35
My professor asked a report with some SQL commands before implementing the database so it was just copying/pasting. Thanks a lot! – Gabriel Sotero Nov 05 '12 at 17:06

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 02 '12 at 13:53

2

Make sure that you are quoting your string correctly.

From your snippet, I'd say that's the problem here since you're using something else than simple single quotes.

answered Nov 02 '12 at 13:53

HonkyTonk

2 Answers2