SQL syntax with /*! c-style comments in MySQLdump

In mysql we have — , /* and /*! comments.  This post is mainly about very basic c-style comments.

/*! : C-Style comments in MySQL

We normally see comments in MySQLdump as follows:

/*!40000 ALTER TABLE `a` DISABLE KEYS */;
Or
/*!50013 DEFINER=`root`@`localhost` SQL SECURITY DEFINER */

These are actually C-Style comments which has embeded sql and treated specially by MySQL server, but ignored by other database engines.
This helps in writing portable comments, it’s treated as a part of surrounding SQL by MySQL while ignored by other databases.

But still you may wonder what are these numbers after /*! – /*!40000 or /*!50013 !!

There are two ways you can write the C-Style comments.
1. /*! SQL */

When SQL is embeded with comments [/*! and */] it’s executed by MySQL server along with surrounding SQL.

2. /*!version-number SQL */

When SQL is embeded with comment that begins with /*! follwed by a version number, the SQL becomes version specific.
MySQL executes SQL body only if it server’s version is atleast as recent as version-number.

So if your MySQL version is 5.x, following syntax will give error.

SHOW /*!60000 status */;

but following will work fine!

SHOW /*!50000 status */;

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Other comments in MySQL:

• — : double slash and a space or # : Hash

This is spanned till end of the line.

• /* :

This is a normal multi-line comment.