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SQL Reserved Words - SQL Keywords

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Also called: SQL Language Keywords, SQL Reserved Keywords, SQL Keywords, SQL Reserved Identifiers, SQL Reserved words

Provide a list of Reserved Words in SQL. Answer in MediaWiki syntax with the URL of the official documentation for each language reference.

SQL (Structured Query Language) is standardized by the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and ISO (International Organization for Standardization), but it's important to note that various database management systems (DBMS) like MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle Database, SQL Server, IBM Db2, etc., might have additional SQL reserved words specific to their SQL implementation. Below is a list of common SQL reserved words that are generally recognized across most implementations of SQL. For comprehensive and specific lists, it's recommended to consult the SQL documentation of the specific dialect of SQL you're using. This list provides a general overview and includes a link to the SQL-2016 standard documentation for SQL reference.

SQL Reserved Words

This list includes common SQL reserved words that are widely recognized across various SQL database systems. These keywords are part of the SQL standard and have special meanings in SQL statements. For a complete and detailed list, please refer to the documentation of the specific SQL dialect you are using.

SELECT - Used to select data from a database.
FROM - Specifies the table to select or delete data from.
WHERE - Used to filter records.
INSERT INTO - Used to insert new records into a table.
UPDATE - Used to modify existing records.
DELETE - Used to delete records from a table.
CREATE TABLE - Used to create a new table.
ALTER TABLE - Used to modify an existing table structure.
DROP TABLE - Used to delete a table.
CREATE INDEX - Used to create an index on a table.
DROP INDEX - Used to delete an index.
JOIN - Used to join tables.
INNER JOIN - Returns records that have matching values in both tables.
LEFT JOIN - Returns all records from the left table, and matched records from the right table.
RIGHT JOIN - Returns all records from the right table, and matched records from the left table.
FULL JOIN - Returns all records when there is a match in either left or right table.
UNION - Used to combine the result sets of two or more SELECT statements.
GROUP BY - Used to group rows that have the same values in specified columns into summary rows.
ORDER BY - Used to sort the result set.
HAVING - Used to filter records that work on summarized GROUP BY results.
BEGIN TRANSACTION - Starts a transaction.
COMMIT - Commits the current transaction.
ROLLBACK - Rolls back the current transaction.
SAVEPOINT - Sets a savepoint within a transaction.
LOCK TABLE - Used to lock one or more tables in a specified mode.
GRANT - Used to give privileges to users.
REVOKE - Used to take back privileges granted to users.

For a detailed and authoritative list of reserved words in SQL, it's best to consult the official documentation of the SQL standard and the documentation of the specific SQL database you are using. The SQL:2016 standard can be a good reference point for understanding the core SQL reserved words: https://www.iso.org/standard/63555.html ISO/IEC 9075-2:2016 - https://www.iso.org/standard/76583.html

Please note, access to the full text of the standard may require purchase or subscription.

This list provides a foundational understanding of SQL reserved words. Given the variations and extensions provided by different SQL dialects, always refer to the specific documentation of your database system for the most accurate and detailed information.

SQL Reserved Words

SQL is a language made up of keywords—special words that are used in performing SQL operations. Special care must be taken to not use these keywords when naming databases, tables, columns, and any other database objects. Thus, these keywords are considered reserved.

This is a list of the more common reserved words found in major DBMSs. Please note the following:

Image Keywords tend to be very DBMS-specific, and not all the keywords that follow are used by all DBMSs.

Image Many DBMSs have extended the list of SQL reserved words to include terms specific to their implementations. Most DBMS-specific keywords are not listed in the following list.

Image To ensure future compatibility and portability, it is a good idea to avoid any and all reserved words, even those not reserved by your own DBMS.

ABORT

ABSOLUTE

ACTION

ACTIVE

ADD

AFTER

ALL

ALLOCATE

ALTER

ANALYZE

AND

ANY

ARE

AS

ASC

ASCENDING

ASSERTION

AT

AUTHORIZATION

AUTO

AUTO-INCREMENT

AUTOINC

AVG

BACKUP

BEFORE

BEGIN

BETWEEN

BIGINT

BINARY

BIT

BLOB

BOOLEAN

BOTH

BREAK

BROWSE

BULK

BY

BYTES

CACHE

CALL

CASCADE

CASCADED

CASE

CAST

CATALOG

CHANGE

CHAR

CHARACTER

CHARACTER_LENGTH

CHECK

CHECKPOINT

CLOSE

CLUSTER

CLUSTERED

COALESCE

COLLATE

COLUMN

COLUMNS

COMMENT

COMMIT

COMMITTED

COMPUTE

COMPUTED

CONDITIONAL

CONFIRM

CONNECT

CONNECTION

CONSTRAINT

CONSTRAINTS

CONTAINING

CONTAINS

CONTAINSTABLE

CONTINUE

CONTROLROW

CONVERT

COPY

COUNT

CREATE

CROSS

CSTRING

CUBE

CURRENT

CURRENT_DATE

CURRENT_TIME

CURRENT_TIMESTAMP

CURRENT_USER

CURSOR

DATABASE

DATABASES

DATE

DATETIME

DAY

DBCC

DEALLOCATE

DEBUG

DEC

DECIMAL

DECLARE

DEFAULT

DELETE

DENY

DESC

DESCENDING

DESCRIBE

DISCONNECT

DISK

DISTINCT

DISTRIBUTED

DIV

DO

DOMAIN

DOUBLE

DROP

DUMMY

DUMP

ELSE

ELSEIF

ENCLOSED

END

ERRLVL

ERROREXIT

ESCAPE

ESCAPED

EXCEPT

EXCEPTION

EXEC

EXECUTE

EXISTS

EXIT

EXPLAIN

EXTEND

EXTERNAL

EXTRACT

FALSE

FETCH

FIELD

FIELDS

FILE

FILLFACTOR

FILTER

FLOAT

FLOPPY

FOR

FORCE

FOREIGN

FOUND

FREETEXT

FREETEXTTABLE

FROM

FULL

FUNCTION

GENERATOR

GET

GLOBAL

GO

GOTO

GRANT

GROUP

HAVING

HOLDLOCK

HOUR

IDENTITY

IF

IN

INACTIVE

INDEX

INDICATOR

INFILE

INNER

INOUT

INPUT

INSENSITIVE

INSERT

INT

INTEGER

INTERSECT

INTERVAL

INTO

IS

ISOLATION

JOIN

KEY

KILL

LANGUAGE

LAST

LEADING

LEFT

LENGTH

LEVEL

LIKE

LIMIT

LINENO

LINES

LISTEN

LOAD

LOCAL

LOCK

LOGFILE

LONG

LOWER

MANUAL

MATCH

MAX

MERGE

MESSAGE

MIN

MINUTE

MIRROREXIT

MODULE

MONEY

MONTH

MOVE

NAMES

NATIONAL

NATURAL

NCHAR

NO

NOCHECK

NONCLUSTERED

NONE

NOT

NULL

NULLIF

NUMERIC

OF

OFF

OFFSET

OFFSETS

ON

ONCE

ONLY

OPEN

OPTION

OR

ORDER

OUTER

OUTPUT

OVER

OVERFLOW

OVERLAPS

PAD

PAGE

PAGES

PARAMETER

PARTIAL

PASSWORD

PERCENT

PERM

PERMANENT

PIPE

PLAN

POSITION

PRECISION

PREPARE

PRIMARY

PRINT

PRIOR

PRIVILEGES

PROC

PROCEDURE

PROCESSEXIT

PROTECTED

PUBLIC

PURGE

RAISERROR

READ

READTEXT

REAL

REFERENCES

REGEXP

RELATIVE

RENAME

REPEAT

REPLACE

REPLICATION

REQUIRE

RESERV

RESERVING

RESET

RESTORE

RESTRICT

RETAIN

RETURN

RETURNS

REVOKE

RIGHT

ROLLBACK

ROLLUP

ROWCOUNT

RULE

SAVE

SAVEPOINT

SCHEMA

SECOND

SECTION

SEGMENT

SELECT

SENSITIVE

SEPARATOR

SEQUENCE

SESSION_USER

SET

SETUSER

SHADOW

SHARED

SHOW

SHUTDOWN

SINGULAR

SIZE

SMALLINT

SNAPSHOT

SOME

SORT

SPACE

SQL

SQLCODE

SQLERROR

STABILITY

STARTING

STARTS

STATISTICS

SUBSTRING

SUM

SUSPEND

TABLE

TABLES

TEMP

TEMPORARY

TEXT

TEXTSIZE

THEN

TIME

TIMESTAMP

TO

TOP

TRAILING

TRAN

TRANSACTION

TRANSLATE

TRIGGER

TRIM

TRUE

TRUNCATE

TYPE

UNCOMMITTED

UNION

UNIQUE

UNTIL

UPDATE

UPDATETEXT

UPPER

USAGE

USE

USER

USING

VALUE

VALUES

VARCHAR

VARIABLE

VARYING

VERBOSE

VIEW

VOLUME

WAIT

WAITFOR

WHEN

WHERE

WHILE

WITH

WORK

WRITE

WRITETEXT

XOR

YEAR

ZONE

Fair Use Source: Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes a Day, 5th Edition

Snippet from Wikipedia: SQL: Structured Query Language (SQL) ( S-Q-L, often "sequel" for historical reasons) is a domain-specific language used to manage data, especially in a relational database management system (RDBMS). It is particularly useful in handling structured data, i.e., data incorporating relations among entities and variables.
Introduced in the 1970s, SQL offered two main advantages over older read–write APIs such as ISAM or VSAM. Firstly, it introduced the concept of accessing many records with one single command. Secondly, it eliminates the need to specify how to reach a record, i.e., with or without an index.
Originally based upon relational algebra and tuple relational calculus, SQL consists of many types of statements, which may be informally classed as sublanguages, commonly: Data query Language (DQL), Data Definition Language (DDL), Data Control Language (DCL), and Data Manipulation Language (DML).
The scope of SQL includes data query, data manipulation (insert, update, and delete), data definition (schema creation and modification), and data access control. Although SQL is essentially a declarative language (4GL), it also includes procedural elements.
SQL was one of the first commercial languages to use Edgar F. Codd's relational model. The model was described in his influential 1970 paper, "A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks". Despite not entirely adhering to the relational model as described by Codd, SQL became the most widely used database language.
SQL became a standard of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1986 and of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1987. Since then, the standard has been revised multiple times to include a larger set of features and incorporate common extensions. Despite the existence of standards, virtually no implementations in existence adhere to it fully, and most SQL code requires at least some changes before being ported to different database systems.

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