What are SQL keywords
Sophia Hammond
Updated on April 29, 2026
In SQL, the keywords are the reserved words that are used to perform various operations in the database. There are many keywords in SQL and as SQL is case insensitive, it does not matter if we use for example SELECT or select.
Is name a special word in SQL?
You cannot use an SQL reserved word as an SQL identifier (such as the name for a table, a column, an AS alias, or other entity), unless: The word is delimited with double quotes (“word”), and. Delimited identifiers are supported.
What does name do in SQL?
SQL aliases are used to give a table, or a column in a table, a temporary name. Aliases are often used to make column names more readable. An alias only exists for the duration of that query.
Can you use name in SQL?
SQL Naming and Statement Rules. The rules for naming database objects (such as tables, columns, views, and database procedures) are as follows: Names can contain only alphanumeric characters and must begin with an alphabetic character or an underscore (_). … This name is reserved for use by the DBMS Server.Is name a reserved word in MySQL?
You should be fine calling a column ‘name’. Check out for more details on how to deal with reserved words. Wrapping column names in the (`) character ensures that even reserved words won’t be misinterpreted.
Is name reserved in SQL?
You cannot use an SQL reserved word as an SQL identifier (such as the name for a table, a column, an AS alias, or other entity), unless: The word is delimited with double quotes (“word”), and. Delimited identifiers are supported.
What is keyword in Oracle SQL?
Oracle SQL keywords are not reserved. However, Oracle uses them internally in specific ways. Therefore, if you use these words as names for objects and object parts, then your SQL statements may be more difficult to read and may lead to unpredictable results.
How do you name a column name in SQL?
- In Object Explorer, connect to an instance of Database Engine.
- In Object Explorer, right-click the table in which you want to rename columns and choose Rename.
- Type a new column name.
Is type an SQL keyword?
TYPE is not a SQL command. However, I would avoid it for 2 reasons: “datatype” is referred to several times in SQL documentation (assuming this means string, int, float. type() will be a reserved word in many programming languages that you want to use in cooperating with a SQL datastore.
How do you name something in SQL?- SELECT FirstName AS First , LastName AS Last FROM Person.Person; …
- — Try rewriting our first example without using AS. …
- SELECT UPPER(LastName) as [LAST NAME] FROM Person.Person. …
- — Answer SELECT DISTINCT UPPER(FirstName) AS [Distinct Names] FROM Person.Person;
How do you name a SQL query?
When writing a query against the table, you should be prefixing the field name with the table name or an alias anyway. Just like with naming tables, avoid using abbreviations, acronyms or special characters. All column names should use PascalCase to distinguish them from SQL keywords (camelCase).
What do I name a database?
Database names must always start with a letter. Database names starting with an underscore are considered to be system databases, and users should not create or delete those. The maximum allowed length of a database name is 64 bytes. Database names are case-sensitive.
How do you name a query?
- From the View menu, choose Solution Explorer.
- In Solution Explorer, right-click the query you want to rename and click Rename in the shortcut menu that appears.
- Type a new name for the query and then press Enter.
What are the rules for naming variables in SQL?
PL/SQL variables naming rules The variable name must be less than 31 characters. Try to make it as meaningful as possible within 31 characters. The variable name must begin with an ASCII letter. It can be either lowercase or uppercase.
Can table names have spaces in SQL?
Table names can contain any valid characters (for example, spaces).
What does DESC table name do?
So desc or describe command shows the structure of table which include name of the column, data-type of column and the nullability which means, that column can contain null values or not.
Is Key a keyword in MySQL?
Key is synonymous to an index. If you want to create an index for a column, then use ‘Key’. KEY is normally a synonym for INDEX. …
Which is not a keyword in MySQL?
ADDALLALTERCASECHANGECHARCHARACTERCHECKCOLLATECOLUMNCOLUMNSCONSTRAINTCREATECROSSCURRENT_DATE
Is name a reserved word in Oracle?
ACCESSADDALLALTERANDANYASASCAUDITBETWEENBYCHARCHECKCLUSTERCOLUMN
What is Oracle user keyword?
USER returns the name of the session user (the user who logged on). … If a Real Application Security session is currently attached to the database session, then it returns user XS$NULL . This function returns a VARCHAR2 value. Oracle Database compares values of this function with blank-padded comparison semantics.
Is keyword in Oracle procedure?
The procedure body begins with the keyword IS (or AS ) and ends with the keyword END followed by an optional procedure name. … These items are local and cease to exist when you exit the procedure. The executable part contains statements that assign values, control execution, and manipulate Oracle data.
Is state a keyword in SQL?
“State” is a keyword – SQLServerCentral Forums.
Is order a keyword in SQL?
The SQL ORDER BY Keyword The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result-set in ascending or descending order.
Is status a SQL keyword?
I would never recommend to use keywords as column names, but it should not be a problem if you enclose it in [] like [Status]. TL;DR: Avoid keyword identifiers and rename them if you can, quote them meticulously otherwise. You’re correct that STATUS is a keyword, likely owing to SHOW STATUS .
What are the SQL data types?
- Exact numerics. Unicode character strings.
- Approximate numerics. Binary strings.
- Date and time. Other data types.
- Character strings.
- bigint. numeric.
- bit. smallint.
- decimal. smallmoney.
- int. tinyint.
Where is the SQL keyword between used?
Que.The SQL keyword BETWEEN is used:b.to limit the columns displayed.c.as a wildcard.d.None of the above is correct.Answer:for ranges.
How do I find the table name in SQL?
- mysql> SELECT table_name FROM information_schema.tables WHERE table_type = ‘base table’ AND table_schema=’test’;
- | employee |
- | role |
- | user |
- | department |
- | employee |
- | role |
- | user |
How do you rename a table in MySQL?
The syntax to rename a table in MySQL is: ALTER TABLE table_name RENAME TO new_table_name; table_name. The table to rename.
How do you rename a table in SQL Server?
- In Object Explorer, right-click the table you want to rename and choose Design from the shortcut menu.
- From the View menu, choose Properties.
- In the field for the Name value in the Properties window, type a new name for the table.
How do you name a SQL Server?
- In Registered Servers, expand Database Engine and then Local Server Groups.
- Right-click a server and select Properties to open the Edit Server Registration Properties dialog window.
- In the Registered server name text box, type the new name for the server registration, and then click Save.
How do I name my database server?
- begin with white space, single quotes, or double quotes.
- end with white space.
- contain semicolons, forward slashes (/), or backslashes (\)
- be longer than 250 bytes.
- contain spaces when they are running on Unix.