Question

In a statement like this;

$sql = "SELECT distinct `term`,count(*) as count 
FROM {$temp_table_name} 
group by `term` order by count DESC";  

What does using the back tick character (`) around the field name ‘term’ buy me?
Is the usage of back ticks for performance reasons? Or is it for some sort of a SQL injection protection?

Note: After I submit the question, I realized that the backtick character does not show around the field name ‘term’ – right here on stackoverflow.
I don’t know of a way of making it appear here in the question body.

Answer 1

If term is mysql key word, you need to quote it by `, otherwise, it is not necessary.

Ps: distinct is not necessary in your case, because you group by it.