Skip to main content

Reserved words (SQL)

A list of SQL reserved words for InterSystems IRIS® data platform.

Synopsis

%AFTERHAVING | %ALLINDEX | %ALPHAUP | %ALTER | %BEGTRANS | 
%CHECKPRIV | %CLASSNAME | %CLASSPARAMETER | %DBUGFULL | %DELDATA | 
%DESCRIPTION | %EXACT | %EXTERNAL | %FILE | %FIRSTTABLE | %FLATTEN | 
%FOREACH | %FULL | %ID | %IDADDED | %IGNOREINDEX | %IGNOREINDICES | 
%INLIST | %INORDER | %INTERNAL | %INTEXT | %INTRANS | %INTRANSACTION | 
%KEY | %MATCHES | %MCODE | %MERGE | %MINUS | %MVR | %NOCHECK | 
%NODELDATA | %NOFLATTEN | %NOFPLAN | %NOINDEX | %NOLOCK | 
%NOMERGE | %NOPARALLEL | %NOREDUCE | %NORUNTIME | %NOSVSO | %NOTOPOPT | 
%NOTRIGGER | %NOUNIONOROPT | %NUMROWS | %ODBCIN | %ODBCOUT | 
%PARALLEL | %PLUS | %PROFILE | %PROFILE_ALL | %PUBLICROWID | %ROUTINE | 
%ROWCOUNT | %RUNTIMEIN | %RUNTIMEOUT | %STARTSWITH | 
%STARTTABLE | %SQLSTRING | %SQLUPPER | %STRING | %TABLENAME | 
%TRUNCATE | %UPPER | %VALUE | %VID
ABSOLUTE | ADD | ALL | ALLOCATE | ALTER | AND | ANY | ARE | AS | 
ASC | ASSERTION | AT | AUTHORIZATION | AVG | BEGIN | BETWEEN | 
BIT | BIT_LENGTH | BOTH | BY | CASCADE | CASE | CAST |
CHAR | CHARACTER | CHARACTER_LENGTH | CHAR_LENGTH | 
CHECK | CLOSE | COALESCE | COLLATE | COMMIT | CONNECT | 
CONNECTION | CONSTRAINT | CONSTRAINTS | CONTINUE | CONVERT | 
CORRESPONDING | COUNT | CREATE | CROSS | CURRENT | 
CURRENT_DATE | CURRENT_TIME | CURRENT_TIMESTAMP | 
CURRENT_USER | CURSOR | DATE | DEALLOCATE | DEC | DECIMAL | 
DECLARE | DEFAULT | DEFERRABLE | DEFERRED | DELETE | DESC | 
DESCRIBE | DESCRIPTOR | DIAGNOSTICS | DISCONNECT | DISTINCT | 
DOMAIN | DOUBLE | DROP | ELSE | END | ENDEXEC | ESCAPE | EXCEPT | 
EXCEPTION | EXEC | EXECUTE | EXISTS | EXTERNAL | EXTRACT | 
FALSE | FETCH | FIRST | FLOAT | FOR | FOREIGN | FOUND | FROM | FULL | 
GET | GLOBAL | GO | GOTO | GRANT | GROUP | HAVING | HOUR | 
IDENTITY | IMMEDIATE | IN | INDICATOR | INITIALLY | 
INNER | INPUT | INSENSITIVE | INSERT | INT | INTEGER | INTERSECT | 
INTERVAL | INTO | IS | ISOLATION | JOIN | LANGUAGE | LAST | 
LEADING | LEFT | LEVEL | LIKE | LOCAL | LOWER | MATCH | MAX | MIN | 
MINUTE | MODULE | NAMES | NATIONAL | NATURAL | NCHAR | 
NEXT | NO | NOT | NULL | NULLIF | NUMERIC | OCTET_LENGTH | OF | ON | 
ONLY | OPEN | OPTION | OR | OUTER | OUTPUT | OVERLAPS | 
PAD | PARTIAL | PREPARE | PRESERVE | PRIMARY | PRIOR | PRIVILEGES | 
PROCEDURE | PUBLIC | READ | REAL | REFERENCES | RELATIVE | 
RESTRICT | REVOKE | RIGHT | ROLE | ROLLBACK | ROWS | 
SCHEMA | SCROLL | SECOND | SECTION | SELECT | SESSION_USER | 
SET | SHARD | SMALLINT | SOME | SPACE | SQLERROR | SQLSTATE | 
STATISTICS | SUBSTRING | SUM | SYSDATE | SYSTEM_USER | TABLE | 
TEMPORARY | THEN | TIME | TIMEZONE_HOUR | TIMEZONE_MINUTE | 
TO | TOP | TRAILING | TRANSACTION | TRIM | TRUE | UNION | UNIQUE | 
UPDATE | UPPER | USER | USING | VALUES | VARCHAR | VARYING | WHEN | 
WHENEVER | WHERE | WITH | WORK | WRITE 

Description

Within SQL certain words are reserved. 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. For further details, refer to Identifiers.

This list contains only those words that are reserved in this sense; it does not contain all SQL keywords. Several of the words listed above start with the "%" character, indicating that they are InterSystems SQL proprietary extension keywords. In general, it is not recommended to use words that begin with "%" as identifiers such as table and column names, because new InterSystems SQL extension keywords may be added in the future.

You can check if a word is an SQL reserved word by invoking the IsReservedWord()Opens in a new tab method, as shown in the following example. Specify the reserved word as a quoted string; reserved words are not case-sensitive. $SYSTEM.SQL.IsReservedWord() returns a boolean value.

   WRITE !,"Reserved?: ",$SYSTEM.SQL.IsReservedWord("VARCHAR")
   WRITE !,"Reserved?: ",$SYSTEM.SQL.IsReservedWord("varchar")
   WRITE !,"Reserved?: ",$SYSTEM.SQL.IsReservedWord("VarChar")
   WRITE !,"Reserved?: ",$SYSTEM.SQL.IsReservedWord("FRED")

This method can also be called as a stored procedure from ODBC or JDBC: %SYSTEM.SQL_IsReservedWord("nnnn").

FeedbackOpens in a new tab