Is there a difference between <> and != in SQL?

Question

I just wanted to know if there is a difference between <> and != when expressing inequality in SQL queries.

Yes. `<>` is the ANSI standard. `!=` is a common synonym. Functionally they are equivalent but not all databases support `!=`. — Gordon Linoff, Aug 01 '14 at 11:12

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:29

1

Technically these both function are the same, so you may choose whichever you find more readable.

The duplicate question has a relevant line:

'<>' is from the SQL-92 standard, '!=' is a proprietary T-SQL operator.

Also to note that there are may database which doesnot != but since you have tagged it as SQL Server then there is no differenc between them

edited May 23 '17 at 12:29

Community

answered Aug 01 '14 at 11:10

Rahul Tripathi

1 Answers1