Difference between <> and != in SQL

Question

What is the exact Difference between <> and != ?

Answer 1

Both are used in SQL Server. Both are used for same purpose. SQL Server 2000 and its previous version don't support != but SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 supports both <> and !=

Answer 2

Functionally there's no difference.

I think this is a matter of programmer preference: '<>' may be preferred by programmers who use various flavors of Pascal or Basic, while '!=' may be preferred by those who use languages which are descendants of C (e.g. C++, Java, C#). Interestingly, though, the C-style equality comparison operator ('==') is not supported in Oracle - how about in other flavors of SQL?

Share and enjoy.

Answer 3

In Oracle there is no difference. Can't speak for all other databases.

Answer 4

None whatsoever, syntactically.

Both are inequality operators, <> is the SQL-92 standard, however its interchangable on some platforms with != (E.g. SQL Server)

Answer 5

<> is the only inequality operator in the SQL Standard.

Lot's of SQL database systems support the use of != including PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MySQL, SQLite, Oracle & Firebird, but some don't, including Apache Derby.

Answer 6

There is no difference, at least for MySQL.

See: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/comparison-operators.html