Should I use != or <> for not equal in T-SQL?

Question

I have seen SQL that uses both != and <> for not equal. What is the preferred syntax and why?

Answer 1

It seems that Microsoft themselves prefer <> to != as evidenced in their table constraints. I personally prefer using != because I clearly read that as "not equal", but if you enter [field1 != field2] and save it as a constrait, the next time you query it, it will show up as [field1 <> field2]. This says to me that the correct way to do it is <>.