MySQL Server supports three comment styles:

The following example demonstrates all three comment styles:

mysql> SELECT 1+1;     # This comment continues to the end of line

mysql> SELECT 1+1;     -- This comment continues to the end of line

mysql> SELECT 1 /* this is an in-line comment */ + 1;

mysql> SELECT 1+

/*

this is a

multiple-line comment

*/

1;

Nested comments are not supported. (Under some conditions, nested comments might be permitted, but usually are not, and users should avoid them.)

MySQL Server supports some variants of C-style comments. These enable you to write code that includes MySQL extensions, but is still portable, by using comments of the following form:

/*! MySQL-specific code */

In this case, MySQL Server parses and executes the code within the comment as it would any other SQL statement, but other SQL servers will ignore the extensions. For example, MySQL Server recognizes the STRAIGHT_JOIN keyword in the following statement, but other servers will not:

SELECT /*! STRAIGHT_JOIN */ col1 FROM table1,table2 WHERE ...

If you add a version number after the ! character, the syntax within the comment is executed only if the MySQL version is greater than or equal to the specified version number. The TEMPORARY keyword in the following comment is executed only by servers from MySQL 5.1.10 or higher:

CREATE TABLE t1(a INT, KEY (a)) /*!50110 KEY_BLOCK_SIZE=1024 */;

The comment syntax just described applies to how the mysqld server parses SQL statements. The mysql client program also performs some parsing of statements before sending them to the server. (It does this to determine statement boundaries within a multiple-statement input line.)

Comments in this format, /*!12345 ... */, are not stored on the server. If this format is used to comment stored routines, the comments will not be retained on the server.

Another variant of C-style comment syntax is used to specify optimizer hints. Hint comments include a + character following the /* comment opening sequence. Example:

SELECT /*+ BKA(t1) */ FROM ... ;

For more information, see Section 9.9.2, “Optimizer Hints”.

The use of short-form mysql commands such as \C within multiple-line /* ... */ comments is not supported.