Documentation Source Text

   AS
   ASC*
   ATTACH*
   AUTOINCREMENT
   BEFORE*
   BEGIN*
   BETWEEN
   BY
   CASCADE*
   CASE
   CAST*
   CHECK
   COLLATE
   COLUMN
   COMMIT
   CONFLICT*
   CONSTRAINT
   CREATE
   CROSS
   CURRENT_DATE*
   CURRENT_TIME*
................................................................................
   GROUP
   HAVING
   IF*
   IGNORE*
   IMMEDIATE*
   IN
   INDEX
   INDEXED*
   INITIALLY*
   INNER
   INSERT
   INSTEAD*
   INTERSECT
   INTO
   IS
................................................................................
   OUTER
   PLAN*
   PRAGMA*
   PRIMARY
   QUERY*
   RAISE*
   REFERENCES
   REGEXP
   REINDEX*
   RELEASE
   RENAME*
   REPLACE*
   RESTRICT*
   RIGHT
   ROLLBACK
   ROW*
   SAVEPOINT
   SELECT
   SET
   TABLE
   TEMP*
   TEMPORARY*
   THEN
   TO
................................................................................
<p>If you want to use a keyword as a name, you need to quote it.  There
are three ways of quoting keywords in SQLite:</p>

<p>
<blockquote>
<table>
<tr>	<td valign="top"><b>'keyword'</b></td><td width="20"></td>
	<td>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.</td></tr>

<tr>	<td valign="top"><b>"keyword"</b></td><td></td>
	<td>A keyword in double-quotes is interpreted as an identifier if
        it matches a known identifier.  Otherwise it is interpreted as a
        string literal.</td></tr>

<tr>	<td valign="top"><b>&#91;keyword&#93;</b></td><td></td>
	<td>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.</td></tr>






</table>
</blockquote>
</p>

<p>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.</p>

   AS
   ASC*
   ATTACH*
   AUTOINCREMENT
   BEFORE*
   BEGIN*
   BETWEEN
   BY*
   CASCADE*
   CASE
   CAST*
   CHECK
   COLLATE
   COLUMN*
   COMMIT
   CONFLICT*
   CONSTRAINT
   CREATE
   CROSS
   CURRENT_DATE*
   CURRENT_TIME*
................................................................................
   GROUP
   HAVING
   IF*
   IGNORE*
   IMMEDIATE*
   IN
   INDEX
   INDEXED
   INITIALLY*
   INNER
   INSERT
   INSTEAD*
   INTERSECT
   INTO
   IS
................................................................................
   OUTER
   PLAN*
   PRAGMA*
   PRIMARY
   QUERY*
   RAISE*
   REFERENCES
   REGEXP*
   REINDEX*
   RELEASE*
   RENAME*
   REPLACE*
   RESTRICT*
   RIGHT
   ROLLBACK
   ROW*
   SAVEPOINT*
   SELECT
   SET
   TABLE
   TEMP*
   TEMPORARY*
   THEN
   TO
................................................................................
<p>If you want to use a keyword as a name, you need to quote it.  There
are three ways of quoting keywords in SQLite:</p>

<p>
<blockquote>
<table>
<tr>	<td valign="top"><b>'keyword'</b></td><td width="20"></td>
	<td>A keyword in single quotes is a string literal.</td></tr>



<tr>	<td valign="top"><b>"keyword"</b></td><td></td>
	<td>A keyword in double-quotes is an identifier</td></tr>



<tr>	<td valign="top"><b>&#91;keyword&#93;</b></td><td></td>
	<td>A keyword enclosed in square brackets is 
        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.</td></tr>

<tr>	<td valign="top"><b>&#96;keyword&#96;</b></td><td></td>
	<td>A keyword enclosed in grave accents (ASCII code 96) is 
        an identifier.  This is not standard SQL.  This quoting mechanism
        is used by MySQL and is included in SQLite for
        compatibility.</td></tr>
</table>
</blockquote>
</p>


<p>For resilience when confronted with historical SQL statements, SQLite
will sometimes bend the quoting rules above:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>If a keyword in single
quotes (ex: <b>'key'</b> or <b>'glob'</b>) is used in a context where
an identifier is allowed but where a string literal is not allowed, then
the token is understood to be an identifier instead of a string literal.
</p></li>

<li><p>If a keyword in double
quotes (ex: <b>"key"</b> or <b>"glob"</b>) is used in a context where
it cannot be resolved to an indentifier but where a string literal
is allowed, then the token is understood to be a string literal instead
of an identifer.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Programmers are cautioned not to use the two exceptions described in
the previous bullets.  We emphasize that they exist only so that old
and ill-formed SQL statements will run correctly.  Future versions of
SQLite might change to raise errors instead of accepting the malformed
statements covered by the exceptions above.</p>

<p>SQLite is extended to allow 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.</p>