1.8.2.4 '--' as the Start of a Comment

Standard SQL uses the C syntax /* this is a comment */ for comments, and MySQL Server supports this syntax as well. MySQL also support extensions to this syntax that enable MySQL-specific SQL to be embedded in the comment, as described in Section 9.6, “Comment Syntax”.

Standard SQL uses “--” as a start-comment sequence. MySQL Server uses # as the start comment character. MySQL Server also supports a variant of the -- comment style. That is, the -- start-comment sequence must be followed by a space (or by a control character such as a newline). The space is required to prevent problems with automatically generated SQL queries that use constructs such as the following, where we automatically insert the value of the payment for payment:

Consider about what happens if payment has a negative value such as -1:

credit--1 is a valid expression in SQL, but -- is interpreted as the start of a comment, part of the expression is discarded. The result is a statement that has a completely different meaning than intended:

The statement produces no change in value at all. This illustrates that permitting comments to start with -- can have serious consequences.

Using our implementation requires a space following the -- for it to be recognized as a start-comment sequence in MySQL Server. Therefore, credit--1 is safe to use.

Another safe feature is that the mysql command-line client ignores lines that start with --.