Keywords

QDB recognizes more than 100 SQL keywords related to command names, operators, sorting directives, and table, column, and query constraints. You must use special syntax to use keywords as names of program objects.

Description:

The SQL standard specifies a huge number of keywords that you can not use as the names of tables, indexes, columns, databases, user-defined functions, collations, virtual table modules, or any other named object. The list of keywords is so long that few people can remember them all. For most SQL code, your safest bet is to never use any English language word as the name of a user-defined object.

If you have to use a keyword as a name, you need to quote it. There are three ways of quoting keywords:

'keyword': A keyword in single quotes is interpreted as a literal string if it occurs in a context where a string literal is allowed. Otherwise, it's understood as an identifier.
"keyword": A keyword in double-quotes is interpreted as an identifier if it matches a known identifier. Otherwise, it's interpreted as a string literal.
[keyword]: A keyword in square brackets is always understood as an identifier. This is not standard SQL—this quoting mechanism is used by MS Access and SQL Server and is included in QDB for compatibility.

Quoted keywords are awkward to read. To help you avoid them, QDB allows many keywords to be used unquoted as the names of any of the objects listed above as well as triggers, views, and attached databases. In the list of keywords that follows, keywords that can be used unquoted as identifiers are shown in italics, while those that must be quoted are shown in bold.

Note: QDB sometimes adds new keywords when it takes on new features. To prevent your code from being broken by future enhancements, you should normally quote any identifier that is an English word, even if QDB doesn't require it.

The following keywords are currently recognized by QDB:

ABORT
ADD
AFTER
ALL
ALTER
ANALYZE
AND
AS
ASC
ATTACH
AUTOINCREMENT
BEFORE
BEGIN
BETWEEN
BY
CASCADE
CASE
CAST
CHECK
COLLATE
COMMIT
CONFLICT
CONSTRAINT
CREATE
CROSS
CURRENT_DATE
CURRENT_TIME
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
DATABASE
DEFAULT
DEFERRABLE
DEFERRED
DELETE
DESC
DETACH
DISTINCT
DROP
EACH

ELSE
END
ESCAPE
EXCEPT
EXCLUSIVE
EXPLAIN
FAIL
FOR
FOREIGN
FROM
FULL
GLOB
GROUP
HAVING
IF
IGNORE
IMMEDIATE
IN
INDEX
INITIALLY
INNER
INSERT
INSTEAD
INTERSECT
INTO
IS
ISNULL
JOIN
KEY
LEFT
LIKE
LIMIT
MATCH
NATURAL
NOT
NOTNULL
NULL
OF

OFFSET
ON
OR
ORDER
OUTER
PLAN
PRAGMA
PRIMARY
QUERY
RAISE
REFERENCES
REINDEX
RENAME
REPLACE
RESTRICT
RIGHT
ROLLBACK
ROW
SELECT
SET
TABLE
TEMP
TEMPORARY
THEN
TO
TRANSACTION
TRIGGER
UNION
UNIQUE
UPDATE
USING
VACUUM
VALUES
VIEW
VIRTUAL
WHEN
WHERE

Special names

The following words are not keywords in QDB, but are used as names of system objects. They can be used as identifiers for a different type of object:

_ROWID_
MAIN
OID

ROWID
SQLITE_MASTER
SQLITE_SEQUENCE

SQLITE_TEMP_MASTER
TEMP