Question

I’m trying to follow a mysql tutorial from The New Boston on youtube. However, I have a problem with the sql panel in phpmyadmin interprets text in quotes as columns. In my version of phpMyadmin, (Server version: 5.1.55,Protocol version: 10,MySQL client version: 5.1.55)I did not see a way to turn this off.
Please see images from this link http://leobee.com/android/push/phpmyadminerrors.html

In phpMyAdmin columns can have quotes or be without quotes in sql queries:
See Image 1 and Image 2

The error 1054 unknown column for the name of a city (which is a string):
See Image 3

I get an error 1064 error in syntax when I escape the string:
See Image 4

I also get and error when the quotes are removed from around the string for the city (which is correct).

The error log says it’s a syntax error, but it is not. How do I get the application to use quotes only for strings?

Answer 1

PhpMyAdmin, like MySQL uses both quotes and back-ticks. Both are different and shouldn’t be used interchangeably.

Back-ticks are used for columns or tables:

SELECT * FROM `customers`
-OR-
SELECT `city` FROM `customers`

Using a single quote will throw an error:

SELECT * FROM 'customers'
-OR-
SELECT 'city' FROM 'customers'

Single quotes should be used for strings. Any additional quotes inside should be properly escaped:

SELECT * FROM `customers` WHERE `city`='Raleigh'
-OR-
SELECT city FROM customers WHERE city='Lee\'s Summit'

Improperly escaping quotes will throw an error:

SELECT * FROM `customers` WHERE `city`=\'Raleigh\'
-OR-
SELECT city FROM customers WHERE city='Lee's Summit'   

Hope that helps!