Microsoft Microsoft SQL Server uses reserved keywords for defining, manipulating, and accessing databases. Reserved keywords are part of the grammar of the Microsoft SQL Server Transact\-SQL language that is used by Microsoft SQL Server Transact\-SQL SQL Server to parse and understand Microsoft SQL Server Transact\-SQL SQL Server Transact\-SQL statements and batches. Although it is syntactically possible to use Microsoft SQL Server Transact\-SQL SQL Server Transact\-SQL SQL Server reserved keywords as identifiers and object names in Microsoft SQL Server Transact\-SQL SQL Server Transact\-SQL SQL Server Transact\-SQL scripts, you can do this only by using delimited identifiers.
The following table lists SQL Server and SQL Data Warehouse 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 SQL Data Warehouse.
| 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 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.
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 |
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 |
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER (Transact-SQL)
ALTER DATABASE Compatibility Level (Transact-SQL)