Meaning of square brackets [] in MS-SQL table designer? [duplicate]

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The square brackets [] are used to delimit identifiers. This is necessary if the column name is a reserved keyword or contains special characters such as a space or hyphen.

Some users also like to use square brackets even when they are not necessary.

From MSDN:

Delimited identifiers

Are enclosed in double quotation marks (“) or brackets ([ ]). Identifiers that comply with the rules for the format of identifiers may or may not be delimited.

SELECT *
FROM [TableX]         --Delimiter is optional.
WHERE [KeyCol] = 124  --Delimiter is optional.

Identifiers that do not comply with all of the rules for identifiers must be delimited in a Transact-SQL statement.

SELECT *
FROM [My Table]      --Identifier contains a space and uses a reserved keyword.
WHERE [order] = 10   --Identifier is a reserved keyword.

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