Reserved Keywords (Transact-SQL)

Microsoft SQL Server uses reserved keywords for defining, manipulating, and accessing databases. Reserved keywords are part of the grammar of the Transact-SQL language that is used by SQL Server to parse and understand Transact-SQL statements and batches. Although it is syntactically possible to use SQL Server reserved keywords as identifiers and object names in Transact-SQL scripts, you can do this only by using delimited identifiers.

The following table lists SQL Server reserved keywords.

ADD	EXTERNAL	PROCEDURE
ALL	FETCH	PUBLIC
ALTER	FILE	RAISERROR
AND	FILLFACTOR	READ
ANY	FOR	READTEXT
AS	FOREIGN	RECONFIGURE
ASC	FREETEXT	REFERENCES
AUTHORIZATION	FREETEXTTABLE	REPLICATION
BACKUP	FROM	RESTORE
BEGIN	FULL	RESTRICT
BETWEEN	FUNCTION	RETURN
BREAK	GOTO	REVERT
BROWSE	GRANT	REVOKE
BULK	GROUP	RIGHT
BY	HAVING	ROLLBACK
CASCADE	HOLDLOCK	ROWCOUNT
CASE	IDENTITY	ROWGUIDCOL
CHECK	IDENTITY_INSERT	RULE
CHECKPOINT	IDENTITYCOL	SAVE
CLOSE	IF	SCHEMA
CLUSTERED	IN	SECURITYAUDIT
COALESCE	INDEX	SELECT
COLLATE	INNER	SEMANTICKEYPHRASETABLE
COLUMN	INSERT	SEMANTICSIMILARITYDETAILSTABLE
COMMIT	INTERSECT	SEMANTICSIMILARITYTABLE
COMPUTE	INTO	SESSION_USER
CONSTRAINT	IS	SET
CONTAINS	JOIN	SETUSER
CONTAINSTABLE	KEY	SHUTDOWN
CONTINUE	KILL	SOME
CONVERT	LEFT	STATISTICS
CREATE	LIKE	SYSTEM_USER
CROSS	LINENO	TABLE
CURRENT	LOAD	TABLESAMPLE
CURRENT_DATE	MERGE	TEXTSIZE
CURRENT_TIME	NATIONAL	THEN
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP	NOCHECK	TO
CURRENT_USER	NONCLUSTERED	TOP
CURSOR	NOT	TRAN
DATABASE	NULL	TRANSACTION
DBCC	NULLIF	TRIGGER
DEALLOCATE	OF	TRUNCATE
DECLARE	OFF	TRY_CONVERT
DEFAULT	OFFSETS	TSEQUAL
DELETE	ON	UNION
DENY	OPEN	UNIQUE
DESC	OPENDATASOURCE	UNPIVOT
DISK	OPENQUERY	UPDATE
DISTINCT	OPENROWSET	UPDATETEXT
DISTRIBUTED	OPENXML	USE
DOUBLE	OPTION	USER
DROP	OR	VALUES
DUMP	ORDER	VARYING
ELSE	OUTER	VIEW
END	OVER	WAITFOR
ERRLVL	PERCENT	WHEN
ESCAPE	PIVOT	WHERE
EXCEPT	PLAN	WHILE
EXEC	PRECISION	WITH
EXECUTE	PRIMARY	WITHIN GROUP
EXISTS	PRINT	WRITETEXT
EXIT	PROC

Additionally, the ISO standard defines a list of reserved keywords. Avoid using ISO reserved keywords for object names and identifiers. The ODBC reserved keyword list, shown in the following table, is the same as the ISO reserved keyword list.

Note

The ISO standards reserved keywords list sometimes can be more restrictive than SQL Server and at other times less restrictive. For example, the ISO reserved keywords list contains INT. SQL Server does not have to distinguish this as a reserved keyword.

Transact-SQL reserved keywords can be used as identifiers or names of databases or database objects, such as tables, columns, views, and so on. Use either quoted identifiers or delimited identifiers. Using reserved keywords as the names of variables and stored procedure parameters is not restricted.

ODBC Reserved Keywords

The following words are reserved for use in ODBC function calls. These words do not constrain the minimum SQL grammar; however, to ensure compatibility with drivers that support the core SQL grammar, applications should avoid using these keywords.

This is the current list of ODBC reserved keywords.

ABSOLUTE	EXEC	OVERLAPS
ACTION	EXECUTE	PAD
ADA	EXISTS	PARTIAL
ADD	EXTERNAL	PASCAL
ALL	EXTRACT	POSITION
ALLOCATE	FALSE	PRECISION
ALTER	FETCH	PREPARE
AND	FIRST	PRESERVE
ANY	FLOAT	PRIMARY
ARE	FOR	PRIOR
AS	FOREIGN	PRIVILEGES
ASC	FORTRAN	PROCEDURE
ASSERTION	FOUND	PUBLIC
AT	FROM	READ
AUTHORIZATION	FULL	REAL
AVG	GET	REFERENCES
BEGIN	GLOBAL	RELATIVE
BETWEEN	GO	RESTRICT
BIT	GOTO	REVOKE
BIT_LENGTH	GRANT	RIGHT
BOTH	GROUP	ROLLBACK
BY	HAVING	ROWS
CASCADE	HOUR	SCHEMA
CASCADED	IDENTITY	SCROLL
CASE	IMMEDIATE	SECOND
CAST	IN	SECTION
CATALOG	INCLUDE	SELECT
CHAR	INDEX	SESSION
CHAR_LENGTH	INDICATOR	SESSION_USER
CHARACTER	INITIALLY	SET
CHARACTER_LENGTH	INNER	SIZE
CHECK	INPUT	SMALLINT
CLOSE	INSENSITIVE	SOME
COALESCE	INSERT	SPACE
COLLATE	INT	SQL
COLLATION	INTEGER	SQLCA
COLUMN	INTERSECT	SQLCODE
COMMIT	INTERVAL	SQLERROR
CONNECT	INTO	SQLSTATE
CONNECTION	IS	SQLWARNING
CONSTRAINT	ISOLATION	SUBSTRING
CONSTRAINTS	JOIN	SUM
CONTINUE	KEY	SYSTEM_USER
CONVERT	LANGUAGE	TABLE
CORRESPONDING	LAST	TEMPORARY
COUNT	LEADING	THEN
CREATE	LEFT	TIME
CROSS	LEVEL	TIMESTAMP
CURRENT	LIKE	TIMEZONE_HOUR
CURRENT_DATE	LOCAL	TIMEZONE_MINUTE
CURRENT_TIME	LOWER	TO
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP	MATCH	TRAILING
CURRENT_USER	MAX	TRANSACTION
CURSOR	MIN	TRANSLATE
DATE	MINUTE	TRANSLATION
DAY	MODULE	TRIM
DEALLOCATE	MONTH	TRUE
DEC	NAMES	UNION
DECIMAL	NATIONAL	UNIQUE
DECLARE	NATURAL	UNKNOWN
DEFAULT	NCHAR	UPDATE
DEFERRABLE	NEXT	UPPER
DEFERRED	NO	USAGE
DELETE	NONE	USER
DESC	NOT	USING
DESCRIBE	NULL	VALUE
DESCRIPTOR	NULLIF	VALUES
DIAGNOSTICS	NUMERIC	VARCHAR
DISCONNECT	OCTET_LENGTH	VARYING
DISTINCT	OF	VIEW
DOMAIN	ON	WHEN
DOUBLE	ONLY	WHENEVER
DROP	OPEN	WHERE
ELSE	OPTION	WITH
END	OR	WORK
END-EXEC	ORDER	WRITE
ESCAPE	OUTER	YEAR
EXCEPT	OUTPUT	ZONE
EXCEPTION

Future Keywords

The following keywords could be reserved in future releases of SQL Server as new features are implemented. Consider avoiding the use of these words as identifiers.

ABSOLUTE	HOST	RELATIVE
ACTION	HOUR	RELEASE
ADMIN	IGNORE	RESULT
AFTER	IMMEDIATE	RETURNS
AGGREGATE	INDICATOR	ROLE
ALIAS	INITIALIZE	ROLLUP
ALLOCATE	INITIALLY	ROUTINE
ARE	INOUT	ROW
ARRAY	INPUT	ROWS
ASENSITIVE	INT	SAVEPOINT
ASSERTION	INTEGER	SCROLL
ASYMMETRIC	INTERSECTION	SCOPE
AT	INTERVAL	SEARCH
ATOMIC	ISOLATION	SECOND
BEFORE	ITERATE	SECTION
BINARY	LANGUAGE	SENSITIVE
BIT	LARGE	SEQUENCE
BLOB	LAST	SESSION
BOOLEAN	LATERAL	SETS
BOTH	LEADING	SIMILAR
BREADTH	LESS	SIZE
CALL	LEVEL	SMALLINT
CALLED	LIKE_REGEX	SPACE
CARDINALITY	LIMIT	SPECIFIC
CASCADED	LN	SPECIFICTYPE
CAST	LOCAL	SQL
CATALOG	LOCALTIME	SQLEXCEPTION
CHAR	LOCALTIMESTAMP	SQLSTATE
CHARACTER	LOCATOR	SQLWARNING
CLASS	MAP	START
CLOB	MATCH	STATE
COLLATION	MEMBER	STATEMENT
COLLECT	METHOD	STATIC
COMPLETION	MINUTE	STDDEV_POP
CONDITION	MOD	STDDEV_SAMP
CONNECT	MODIFIES	STRUCTURE
CONNECTION	MODIFY	SUBMULTISET
CONSTRAINTS	MODULE	SUBSTRING_REGEX
CONSTRUCTOR	MONTH	SYMMETRIC
CORR	MULTISET	SYSTEM
CORRESPONDING	NAMES	TEMPORARY
COVAR_POP	NATURAL	TERMINATE
COVAR_SAMP	NCHAR	THAN
CUBE	NCLOB	TIME
CUME_DIST	NEW	TIMESTAMP
CURRENT_CATALOG	NEXT	TIMEZONE_HOUR
CURRENT_DEFAULT_TRANSFORM_GROUP	NO	TIMEZONE_MINUTE
CURRENT_PATH	NONE	TRAILING
CURRENT_ROLE	NORMALIZE	TRANSLATE_REGEX
CURRENT_SCHEMA	NUMERIC	TRANSLATION
CURRENT_TRANSFORM_GROUP_FOR_TYPE	OBJECT	TREAT
CYCLE	OCCURRENCES_REGEX	TRUE
DATA	OLD	UESCAPE
DATE	ONLY	UNDER
DAY	OPERATION	UNKNOWN
DEC	ORDINALITY	UNNEST
DECIMAL	OUT	USAGE
DEFERRABLE	OVERLAY	USING
DEFERRED	OUTPUT	VALUE
DEPTH	PAD	VAR_POP
DEREF	PARAMETER	VAR_SAMP
DESCRIBE	PARAMETERS	VARCHAR
DESCRIPTOR	PARTIAL	VARIABLE
DESTROY	PARTITION	WHENEVER
DESTRUCTOR	PATH	WIDTH_BUCKET
DETERMINISTIC	POSTFIX	WITHOUT
DICTIONARY	PREFIX	WINDOW
DIAGNOSTICS	PREORDER	WITHIN
DISCONNECT	PREPARE	WORK
DOMAIN	PERCENT_RANK	WRITE
DYNAMIC	PERCENTILE_CONT	XMLAGG
EACH	PERCENTILE_DISC	XMLATTRIBUTES
ELEMENT	POSITION_REGEX	XMLBINARY
END-EXEC	PRESERVE	XMLCAST
EQUALS	PRIOR	XMLCOMMENT
EVERY	PRIVILEGES	XMLCONCAT
EXCEPTION	RANGE	XMLDOCUMENT
FALSE	READS	XMLELEMENT
FILTER	REAL	XMLEXISTS
FIRST	RECURSIVE	XMLFOREST
FLOAT	REF	XMLITERATE
FOUND	REFERENCING	XMLNAMESPACES
FREE	REGR_AVGX	XMLPARSE
FULLTEXTTABLE	REGR_AVGY	XMLPI
FUSION	REGR_COUNT	XMLQUERY
GENERAL	REGR_INTERCEPT	XMLSERIALIZE
GET	REGR_R2	XMLTABLE
GLOBAL	REGR_SLOPE	XMLTEXT
GO	REGR_SXX	XMLVALIDATE
GROUPING	REGR_SXY	YEAR
HOLD	REGR_SYY	ZONE

See Also

Reference

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER (Transact-SQL)

ALTER DATABASE Compatibility Level (Transact-SQL)