Neoview SQL Reference Manual (R2.4)

Identifiers
SQL identifiers are names used to identify tables, views, columns, and other SQL entities. The
two types of identifiers are regular and delimited. A delimited identifier is enclosed in double
quotes ("). An identifier of either type can contain up to 128 characters.
Regular Identifiers
Regular identifiers begin with a letter (A through Z or a through z), but can also contain digits
(0 through 9), or underscore characters (_). Regular identifiers are not case-sensitive. You cannot
use a reserved word as a regular identifier.
Delimited Identifiers
Delimited identifiers are character strings that appear within double quote characters (") and
consist of alphanumeric characters and other characters except for the leading at sign (@) and
the forward slash (/) character. To include a double quote character in a delimited identifier,
use two consecutive double quotes (for example, "da Vinci’s ""Mona Lisa""").
Unlike regular identifiers, delimited identifiers are case-sensitive. Spaces within a delimited
identifier are significant except for trailing spaces, which Neoview SQL truncates. You can use
reserved words as delimited identifiers.
Limitations for Delimited Identifiers
These limitations apply to delimited identifiers:
• Must start and end with a double quote.
• Must not use one of these characters: leading at sign (@) and the forward slash (/) character.
• Internal double quotes must be doubled
• Identifiers with @ character prefix are reserved for internal names.
• The circumflex character ^ cannot be the first character following the starting double quote.
• Cannot contain trailing spaces before the end double quote
• Must contain at least one non blank character.
• Cannot be all special characters (for example, “-” or “~!#$%^&”.
• Can cause a length limit (128) overflow. For example, the metadata–format length of the
name “a_funny”“name” is within the limit; the metatdata–format name, that is, the format
stored in the metadata tables, is a_funny”name and its length is 12, not 15.
Examples of Identifiers
• These are regular identifiers:
mytable
SALES2006
Employee_Benefits_Selections
CUSTOMER_BILLING_INFORMATION
Because regular identifiers are case insensitive, Neoview SQL treats all these identifiers as
alternative representations of mytable:
mytable MYTABLE MyTable mYtAbLe
• These are delimited identifiers:
"mytable"
"table"
"2006 SALES"
"CUSTOMER-BILLING-INFORMATION"
Because delimited identifiers are case-sensitive, Neoview SQL treats the identifier "mytable"
as different from the identifiers "MYTABLE" or "MyTable". Trailing spaces in a delimited
identifier are truncated. For example, "mytable " is equivalent to "mytable".
252 SQL Language Elements