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In the System, identifiers are lexical tokens that name specific entities in the database. For example, a table name is an identifier. In most cases, you do not have to quote an identifier. However, the identifier must meet these two conditions:
  • Start with a letter followed by zero or more letters, digits, or underscores.
  • Must not be a reserved word. For the full list of reserved words, see Reserved Words.
If the identifier does not meet either of these conditions, then enclose the identifier in double quotes "" to create a delimited identifier. SQL is case-insensitive, and the database normalizes identifiers to lowercase. For example, you must add double quotes to the 1start_with_digit, hy-phen, and mixedCase identifiers so that the database can parse them correctly: "1start_with_digit", "hy-phen", and "mixedCase". The system uses identifiers to identify these objects:
  • Database name
  • Schema name
  • Function name
  • Table name
  • Table alias name
  • Column name
  • Column alias name
  • Index name
  • View name
  • Task name
  • Node names
  • Machine learning model name
  • Connectivity pool name
  • Connectivity pool participant name
  • Storage space name
  • Cluster name
  • Service class name
  • Single sign-on (SSO) protocol
  • Tag name
  • JSON key
  • Username
  • Group name
  • Common table expression
  • Subexpression name
  • Data pipeline name
  • Data pipeline type
SQL Syntax Conventions SQL Reference Machine Learning Model Functions Connectivity Pools Users, Groups, and Service Classes
Last modified on May 27, 2026