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## SQL As Understood By SQLite

### SQLite Keywords

The SQL standard specifies a huge number of keywords which may not be used as the names of tables, indices, 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 want to use a keyword as a name, you need to quote it. There are three ways of quoting keywords in SQLite:

> '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 is understood as an identifier.
> "keyword" |  | A keyword in double-quotes is interpreted as an identifier if it matches a known identifier. Otherwise it is interpreted as a string literal.
> [keyword] |  | A keyword enclosed 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 SQLite for compatibility.

Quoted keywords are unaesthetic. To help you avoid them, SQLite allows many keywords to be used unquoted as the names of databases, tables, indices, triggers, views, columns, user-defined functions, collations, attached databases, and virtual function modules. In the list of keywords that follows, those that can be used as identifiers are shown in an italic font. Keywords that must be quoted in order to be used as identifiers are shown in bold.

SQLite adds new keywords from time to time when it take on new features. So to prevent your code from being broken by future enhancements, you should normally quote any indentifier that is an English language word, even if you do not have to.

The following are the keywords currently recognized by SQLite:

> 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 are not keywords in SQLite, but are used as names of system objects. They can be used as an identifier for a different type of object.

> _ROWID_
> MAIN
> OID
> ROWID
> SQLITE_MASTER
> SQLITE_SEQUENCE
> SQLITE_TEMP_MASTER
> TEMP

This page last modified 2007/12/13 19:54:34 UTC