How Work with White Space and Semicolons in Simple SQL Selects

You must use at least one white space character between each keyword, table or column name in an SQL select. In addition, a semicolon is required as the statement delimiter.

To learn how to add comments in simple SQL select statements, follow these steps:

1. You'll need to setup the MySQL database tables. The instructions for the setup can be found in How to add comments in simple SQL selects. Follow steps 1 through 7 in this topic before proceeding to the next step.
2. Your database is ready for action! Now we'll explore white space and semicolons in simple select statement.
3. When you type in an SQL select statement you must use the semicolon to indicate the end of the statement: When MySQL encounters the semicolon, the SQL statement will be executed.
4. You must place at least one white space as a separator between the keywords, table names and column names on an SQL select. Arbitrarily many spaces can be used as separators: One white space between each select keyword, table or column name is sufficient. An excessive number of white space can hinder the readability of your statement.