I’ve always heard that Sybase SQL Server was essentially the same as Microsoft SQL Server. I’ve even read about developers authoring applications against MSSQL and then deploying to Sybase SQL.

Well, this week I started on my first project with Sybase SQL Server and was amazed at how different they are. Sybase SQL doesn’t support “TOP” syntax and all SQL identifiers (table and field names) are case sensitive. So a query on “SELECT * FROM Documents” will fail if the table is name “DOCUMENTS”. That’s just what I ran into in the first few days.. I’m sure there will be more surprises to come.

So if there are others out there who assumed the two were compatible due to their common root and other community fodder, you are now forewarned.