How can I check (My)SQL statements for syntactical correctness

After searching for a CLI tool for syntax linting in Mysql to use in Jenkins and didn't find anything quickly (this Stackoverflow question is one of the first results - LOL) I came up with the following solution (OS: Linux, but should be feasible with Windows too):

Something like the follwoing:

lint_result=`mysql mysql_test -B -f -e 'select asdf s where x;' 2>&1`; if [ `echo $lint_result | sed -r "s/ERROR ([0-9]*).*/\1/g"` -eq 1064 ]; then echo -e "Syntax error:\n${lint_result}"; fi
Syntax error:
ERROR 1064 (42000) at line 1: 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 'where x' at line 1

(To check sql files you can use "< filename.sql" instead of -b -e 'statement')

If the syntax of the query can not be parsed by mysql it claims: ERROR 1064 (42000) at line 1: 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 '' at line 1

Only if the syntax is correct it tries to execute the query and realize that the table don't exists but this isn't interesting anymore:

ERROR 1146 (42S02) at line 1: Table 'mysql_test.s' doesn't exist

Therefor Error 1064 is the invalid syntax. You only need to create an empty test database because otherwise only errors with a wrong FROM part would appear (here for example the database is needed in order to get a valid syntax check result: 'select asdf from s where x and if;).

As far as i tested it works fine (Version Mysql 5.5).

Here a complete bash script vesion:

#!/bin/bash

source_dir=${1};
database="mysql_test";
mysql_args="-h127.0.0.1";

mysql $mysql_args -B -e "DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS $database; CREATE DATABASE $database;";
for file in `find $source_dir -name "*.sql"`; do
    lint_result=`mysql $mysql_args $database -f -b < $file 2>&1`;
    if [ "`echo $lint_result | sed -r \"s/ERROR ([0-9]*).*/\1/g\"`" = "1064" ]; then
        echo -e "Syntax error in file ${file}:\n${lint_result}" && exit 1;
    fi;
done

The commercial version of MySQL Workbench has a syntax checker for MySQL statements, but of course that would only cover the database aspects. See http://mysql.com/products/workbench/ (though I found the factoid in the help index for the free app).

Here is a validator, which validates against SQL 92/99/2003 standards however the fact you mention MySQL leads me to believe you are using MySQL specific syntax in your SQL queries.

One option is move to an agnostic approach in dealing with your database layer, writing agnostic SQL code. You will obviously need to get in contact with Mimer to see if you can take it offline and integrate it within your CI environment.

Couple of "ifs" in the overall approach and this is all contingent on the fact you are willing/able in the current state to write agnostic SQL code.