Question

For example, mysql quote table name using

SELECT * FROM `table_name`; 

notice the `

Does other database ever use different char to quote their table name

Answer 1

This use of quotes is called delimited identifiers. It’s an important part of SQL because otherwise you can’t use identifiers (e.g. table names and column names) that:

• Include whitespace: ‘my table’
• Include special characters and punctuation: ‘my-table’
• Include international characters: ‘私のテーブル’
• Are case-sensitive: ‘MyTable’
• Match SQL keywords: ‘table’

The standard SQL language uses double-quotes for delimited identifiers:

SELECT * FROM 'my table'; 

MySQL uses back-quotes by default. MySQL can use standard double-quotes:

SELECT * FROM `my table`; SET SQL_MODE=ANSI_QUOTES; SELECT * FROM 'my table'; 

Microsoft SQL Server and Sybase uses brackets by default. They can both use standard double-quotes this way:

SELECT * FROM [my table]; SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON; SELECT * FROM 'my table'; 

InterBase and Firebird need to set the SQL dialect to 3 to support delimited identifiers.

Most other brands of database use double-quotes correctly.