Reserved Keywords (Transact-SQL)
Applies to: 
SQL Server
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Azure Synapse Analytics
Analytics Platform System (PDW)
SQL analytics endpoint in Microsoft Fabric
Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric
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 and Azure Synapse Analytics 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
WRITETEXT
EXIT
PROC
The following table lists reserved keywords that are exclusive to Azure Synapse Analytics.
LABEL
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
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER (Transact-SQL)
ALTER DATABASE Compatibility Level (Transact-SQL)