what does square brackets in an sql update statement mean?

Question

I have an update statement written in SQL, which is :

UPDATE student 
SET student.[studentno]=[enter studentno],
    student.[avg]=[avg value];

What is the benefit of using the square brackets around “enter studentno” and “avg value” and what does this statement do? Does it allow the user to enter the values to be updated?

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 09 '19 at 07:19

2

Columns in square brackets usually are composed keywords or contain special characters or spaces.

Sometimes it's the norm to use them just for readability - you know it's a column name,

answered May 09 '19 at 07:19

Carlos Alves Jorge

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When using SQL Server or Sybase... – jarlh May 09 '19 at 07:24

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 09 '19 at 07:47

1

Square brackets are not standard SQL, they are proprietary extensions.

answered May 09 '19 at 07:47

Erwin Smout

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Hans Keﬆing · Answer 3 · 2019-05-09T07:55:43.017

When a column name contains spaces or is a reserved word, the name needs to be escaped. Some databases use [ ] for that. For column "studentno" you don't need escaping, but it is not wrong to use it. If it were called "student no" (note the space), the brackets would be required.

Is this MS Access? That has the extra feature that when some term isn't defined in the table (such as your [enter studentno], I assume) it will ask the user for a value, using that text as a prompt.

what does square brackets in an sql update statement mean?

3 Answers3