How to Execute MySQL Command Delimiter

Delimiters in MySQL

Delimiters other than the default ; are typically used when defining functions, stored procedures, and triggers wherein you must define multiple statements. You define a different delimiter like $$ which is used to define the end of the entire procedure, but inside it, individual statements are each terminated by ;. That way, when the code is run in the mysql client, the client can tell where the entire procedure ends and execute it as a unit rather than executing the individual statements inside.

Note that the DELIMITER keyword is a function of the command line mysql client (and some other clients) only and not a regular MySQL language feature. It won't work if you tried to pass it through a programming language API to MySQL. Some other clients like PHPMyAdmin have other methods to specify a non-default delimiter.

Example:

DELIMITER $$
/* This is a complete statement, not part of the procedure, so use the custom delimiter $$ */
DROP PROCEDURE my_procedure$$

/* Now start the procedure code */
CREATE PROCEDURE my_procedure ()
BEGIN    
  /* Inside the procedure, individual statements terminate with ; */
  CREATE TABLE tablea (
     col1 INT,
     col2 INT
  );

  INSERT INTO tablea
    SELECT * FROM table1;

  CREATE TABLE tableb (
     col1 INT,
     col2 INT
  );
  INSERT INTO tableb
    SELECT * FROM table2;
  
/* whole procedure ends with the custom delimiter */
END$$

/* Finally, reset the delimiter to the default ; */
DELIMITER ;

Attempting to use DELIMITER with a client that doesn't support it will cause it to be sent to the server, which will report a syntax error. For example, using PHP and MySQLi:

$mysqli = new mysqli('localhost', 'user', 'pass', 'test');
$result = $mysqli->query('DELIMITER $$');
echo $mysqli->error;

Errors with:

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds
to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'DELIMITER $$' at line 1

How to change mysql Delimiter inside Kohana framework during call one model method?

As you can see in this answer, you cannot use the DELIMITER via PHP as it is a command line statement. Just leave it out and use an array of queries (Kohana sadly does not support multiple queries via one call to the DB)

MySQL delimiter syntax error

DELIMITER is not a MySQL command. It's a command that your MySQL client needs to support. I was running PHPMyAdmin 2.8.2.4, which didn't support it. When I upgraded to the newest version, which is currently 3.4.9, it worked just fine. Your MySQL version has nothing to do with DELIMITER and whether it's supported or not.

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