What is the difference between right/left placement of column name in a WHERE clause? Both of the following queries return the same output but I'm curious whether there is underlying difference between these two syntaxes.

    SELECT * FROM table
    WHERE first_name = 'John';


and

    SELECT * FROM table
    WHERE 'John' = first_name;
There is no semantic difference. It is purely a matter of style.

The first form is much more common, in my experience.

The order of WHERE clauses with respect to AND does not matter either.