At 07:21 a.m. 26/09/2013, Jake Alley wrote:

>I'm wondering about Firebird not allowing column names to start with an underscore. I have a database that works fine with Postgresql, Mysql, and Sqlite. I was excited about using Firebird as an embedded alternative to Sqlite, but have found that Firebird doesn't allow column names to start with underscores.
>
>Am I correct about this? Is there a way to get around it?

You can use the SQL-standard double-quoting of identifiers and use whatever characters you like, including lower case. Be aware that this technique makes identifiers case-sensitive. Any subsequent references to the double-quoted object must be in double quotes.

(In Firebird, if you define an object in double-quotes all caps then you can refer to it without the quotes. That won't work for your identifiers with otherwise-illegal characters, though.)

>There are lots of theories about column naming practices. The reason I use underscores occasionally to start column names is that some names I want to use are SQL key or reserved words. For instance "class" is reserved in SQL 99. It usually doesn't matter in statements, but sometimes it can cause hard to troubleshoot problems. It's easier for me to just name the column "_class."

You can use reserved words as identifiers if you define them in double quotes. Just sayin' ....


Helen Borrie, Support Consultant, IBPhoenix (Pacific)
Author of "The Firebird Book" and "The Firebird Book Second Edition"
http://www.firebird-books.net
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