Appendix I: SQL-Reserved Keywords

Overview

With a limited vocabulary, SQL is a relatively efficient language (compared with many other programming languages); the SQL99 standard defines about 300 keywords out of which vendors have thus far implemented only a small subset.

Oracle 9i lists over 100 keywords, IBM DB2 UDB has over 290 keywords, and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 reserves over 170 keywords. Most of the vendor-reserved keywords are found in the SQL99 standard, but many more exist. None of these reserved words should be used as a variable identifier as such use would affect portability of your SQL code. On some systems, doing so will generate an error (SQLSTATE 42939).

Asterisks appear after the vendor-supported keywords whenever they also are part of SQL standard.

Note

In addition to keywords listed here, each vendor also has a list of keywords reserved for future use. These lists are constantly updated. Refer to the particular RDBMS documentation.

SQL99 standard reserved keywords:

ABSOLUTE	CASE	CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
ACTION	CAST	CURRENT_USER
ADD	CATALOG	CURSOR
ADMIN	CHAR	CYCLE
AFTER	CHARACTER	DATA
AGGREGATE	CHECK	DATALINK
ALIAS	CLASS	DATE
ALL	CLOB	DAY
ALLOCATE	CLOSE	DEALLOCATE
ALTER	COLLATE	DEC
AND	COLLATION	DECIMAL
ANY	COLUMN	DECLARE
ARE	COMMIT	DEFAULT
ARRAY	COMPLETION	DEFERRABLE
AS	CONDITION	DELETE
ASC	CONNECT	DEPTH
ASSERTION	CONNECTION	DEREF
AT	CONSTRAINT	DESC
AUTHORIZATION	CONSTRAINTS	DESCRIPTOR
BEFORE	CONSTRUCTOR	DIAGNOSTICS
BEGIN	CONTAINS	DICTIONARY
BINARY	CONTINUE	DISCONNECT
BIT	CORRESPONDING	DO
BLOB	CREATE	DOMAIN
BOOLEAN	CROSS	DOUBLE
BOTH	CUBE	DROP
BREADTH	CURRENT	END-EXEC
BY	CURRENT_DATE	EQUALS
CALL	CURRENT_PATH	ESCAPE
CASCADE	CURRENT_ROLE	EXCEPT
CASCADED	CURRENT_TIME	EXCEPTION
EXECUTE	INPUT	MODIFIES
EXIT	INSERT	MODIFY
EXPAND	INT	MODULE
EXPANDING	INTEGER	MONTH
FALSE	INTERSECT	NAMES
FIRST	INTERVAL	NATIONAL
FLOAT	INTO	NATURAL
FOR	IS	NCHAR
FOREIGN	ISOLATION	NCLOB
FREE	ITERATE	NEW
FROM	JOIN	NEXT
FUNCTION	KEY	NO
GENERAL	LANGUAGE	NONE
GET	LARGE	NORMALIZE
GLOBAL	LAST	NOT
GOTO	LATERAL	NULL
GROUP	LEADING	NUMERIC
GROUPING	LEAVE	OBJECT
HANDLER	LEFT	OF
HASH	LESS	OFF
HOUR	LEVEL	OLD
IDENTITY	LIKE	ON
IF	LIMIT	ONLY
IGNORE	LOCAL	OPEN
IMMEDIATE	LOCALTIME	OPERATION
IN	LOCALTIME-STAMP	OPTION
INDICATOR	LOCATOR	OR
INITIALIZE	LOOP	ORDER
INITIALLY	MATCH	ORDINALITY
INNER	MEETS	OUT
INOUT	MINUTE	OUTER
EXECUTE	INPUT	MODIFIES
EXIT	INSERT	MODIFY
EXPAND	INT	MODULE
EXPANDING	INTEGER	MONTH
FALSE	INTERSECT	NAMES
FIRST	INTERVAL	NATIONAL
FLOAT	INTO	NATURAL
FOR	IS	NCHAR
FOREIGN	ISOLATION	NCLOB
FREE	ITERATE	NEW
FROM	JOIN	NEXT
FUNCTION	KEY	NO
GENERAL	LANGUAGE	NONE
GET	LARGE	NORMALIZE
GLOBAL	LAST	NOT
GOTO	LATERAL	NULL
GROUP	LEADING	NUMERIC
GROUPING	LEAVE	OBJECT
HANDLER	LEFT	OF
HASH	LESS	OFF
HOUR	LEVEL	OLD
IDENTITY	LIKE	ON
IF	LIMIT	ONLY
IGNORE	LOCAL	OPEN
IMMEDIATE	LOCALTIME	OPERATION
IN	LOCALTIME-STAMP	OPTION
INDICATOR	LOCATOR	OR
INITIALIZE	LOOP	ORDER
INITIALLY	MATCH	ORDINALITY
INNER	MEETS	OUT
INOUT	MINUTE	OUTER
USAGE	VARYING	WITH
USER	VIEW	WRITE
USING	WHEN	YEAR
VALUE	WHENEVER	ZONE
VALUES	WHERE
VARIABLE	WHILE

Oracle 9i SQL reserved keywords:

ACCESS	DELETE *	INTO *
ADD *	DESC *	IS *
ALL *	DISTINCT *	LEVEL *
ALTER *	DROP *	LIKE *
AND *	ELSE *	LOCK
ANY *	EXCLUSIVE	LONG
AS *	EXISTS	MAXEXTENTS
ASC *	FILE	MINUS
AUDIT	FLOAT *	MLSLABEL
BETWEEN *	FOR *	MODE
BY *	FROM *	MODIFY *
CHAR *	GRANT *	NOAUDIT
CHECK *	GROUP *	NOCOMPRESS
CLUSTER	HAVING *	NOT *
COLUMN *	IDENTIFIED	NOWAIT
COMMENT	IMMEDIATE *	NULL *
COMPRESS	IN *	NUMBER
CONNECT *	INCREMENT	OF *
CREATE *	INDEX	OFFLINE
CURRENT *	INITIAL	ON *
DATE *	INSERT *	ONLINE
DECIMAL *	INTEGER *	OPTION *
DEFAULT *	INTERSECT *	OR*
ORDER *	SESSION *	UNION *
PCTFREE	SET *	UNIQUE *
PRIOR *	SHARE	UPDATE *
PRIVILEGES *	SIZE *	USER *
PUBLIC *	SMALLINT *	VALIDATE
RAW *	START *	VALUES *
RENAME	SUCCESSFUL	VARCHAR *
RESOURCE	SYNONYM	VARCHAR2
REVOKE *	SYSDATE	VIEW *
ROW *	TABLE *	WHENEVER *
ROWID	THEN *	WHERE *
ROWNUM	TO *	WITH *
ROWS *	TRIGGER *
SELECT *	UID