In SQL Server, when should you use GO and when should you use semi-colon ;?

Question

I’ve always been confused with when I should use the GO keyword after commands and whether a semi-colon is required at the end of commands. What is the differences and why/w

Answer 1

GO

Go is a batch separator. This means that everything in that batch is local to that particular batch.

Any declarations of Variables, Table Variables, etc do not go across GO statements.

#Temp tables are local to a connection, so they span across GO statements.

Semicolon

A Semicolon is a statement terminator. This is purely used to identify that a particular statement has ended.

In most cases, the statement syntax itself is enough to determine the end of a statement.

CTE's however, demand that the WITH is the first statement so you need a semicolon before the WITH.