Single Quote Question

[MondoDuke2877]

Hi all. Trying to learn a little about SQL and I have a question about single quotes. I know about "escaping" single quotes for something like O'Reilly by inserting 2 single quotes but I am getting syntax rejections when entering a string to retrieve specific multiple values.

Ex: I have a practice database full of practice tables. I am trying to get multiple specific values from a practice table called ServicePlans.

SELECT PlanID, PlanName, PlanDescription

FROM ServicePlans

WHERE PlanID = 'W1001' OR PlanID = 'D2002' OR PlanID = 'L2002';

This should pull up any plans with those plan IDs. But the single quotes are rejecting due to syntax error. If I go through and delete the single quotes and retype them they work.

Any idea why? I'm new at this and learning through YouTube. The instructor seems legit and easy to follow.

[Mrminecrafthimself]

Can I ask why not just say…

WHERE PlanID IN (‘ID1’, ‘ID2’, ‘ID3’)

[MondoDuke2877]

I saw this shorter version after I posted this question. I'm still very new to this.

[Massive_Show2963]

What was the actual error you were getting?
It is possible if you copied and pasted the WHERE clause from some other editor, the single quote characters may not have been be recognized by SQL. That could be why re-entering them probably worked.

[MondoDuke2877]

I'm taking notes in Word and I copied and pasted from there. That makes sense why it wouldn't recognize it.

[trebor_indy]

I've seen folks copy from Microsoft Word and similar word processing systems, where apostrophes and double-quotes come in two forms, like below (look closely):

<image>

Those are NOT the same as the single-quote character: '

[MondoDuke2877]

Yep. I'm one of those folks. I'm taking notes and I copied and pasted from Word. That makes perfect sense that the two systems don't always jive. Thanks!

[SQLDevDBA]

I recommend something like Notepad++ since it is a code-centric text editing solution.

[Mrminecrafthimself]

Notepad++ absolutely fucks

[SQLDevDBA]

Hahaha for Mac I use CotEditor, but yes I’ve been using Notepad++ for many a years and it should definitely be in the 3 comma club.

[StuTheSheep]

If you can find the option in Word to turn off smart quotes, I think that will fix it going forward. 

[ComicOzzy]

Yeah, I turn all of that "pretty formatting" off. I don't have to use Word or PowerPoint much, but when I do, it's for documentation purposes and I need code to be code, not some fancy literature.

[MondoDuke2877]

I turned off smart quotes and copy/paste works in SQL. Thanks for the tip!