Always Handy? – HELP! – SQL*Plus Reserved Words

One of the most (idiotic posts /) read posts on this website is “Oracle 11g – SQL*Plus Command Line Options“. Somehow syntax examples do well via Google…

(So before the end of the year I want to try if I can beat that one…).

The other post was created after a having made a typo on the command line.

Today, since a long long time, after seeing that help for sqlplus is installed during a default database install, I thought, lets check it once again..

The lists for reserved words for SQL and PL/SQL (in this case Oracle 11g) can be handy. The following is a simple method to check, that is if help is installed.

😎

“man man” (help help)

SQL> help

 HELP
 ----

 Accesses this command line help system. Enter HELP INDEX or ? INDEX
 for a list of topics.

 You can view SQL*Plus resources at
     http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/sql_plus/
 and the Oracle Database Library at
     http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/

 HELP|? [topic]

SQL> help index

Enter Help [topic] for help.

 @             COPY         PAUSE                    SHUTDOWN
 @@            DEFINE       PRINT                    SPOOL
 /             DEL          PROMPT                   SQLPLUS
 ACCEPT        DESCRIBE     QUIT                     START
 APPEND        DISCONNECT   RECOVER                  STARTUP
 ARCHIVE LOG   EDIT         REMARK                   STORE
 ATTRIBUTE     EXECUTE      REPFOOTER                TIMING
 BREAK         EXIT         REPHEADER                TTITLE
 BTITLE        GET          RESERVED WORDS (SQL)     UNDEFINE
 CHANGE        HELP         RESERVED WORDS (PL/SQL)  VARIABLE
 CLEAR         HOST         RUN                      WHENEVER OSERROR
 COLUMN        INPUT        SAVE                     WHENEVER SQLERROR
 COMPUTE       LIST         SET                      XQUERY
 CONNECT       PASSWORD     SHOW
.

Reserved words SQL

SQL> help RESERVED WORDS (SQL)

 RESERVED WORDS (SQL)
 --------------------

 SQL Reserved Words have special meaning in SQL, and may not be used for
 identifier names unless enclosed in "quotes".

 An asterisk (*) indicates words are also ANSI Reserved Words.

 Oracle prefixes implicitly generated schema object and subobject names
 with "SYS_". To avoid name resolution conflict, Oracle discourages you
 from prefixing your schema object and subobject names with "SYS_".

 ACCESS          DEFAULT*         INTEGER*        ONLINE          START
 ADD*            DELETE*          INTERSECT*      OPTION*         SUCCESSFUL
 ALL*            DESC*            INTO*           OR*             SYNONYM
 ALTER*          DISTINCT*        IS*             ORDER*          SYSDATE
 AND*            DROP*            LEVEL*          PCTFREE         TABLE*
 ANY*            ELSE*            LIKE*           PRIOR*          THEN*
 AS*             EXCLUSIVE        LOCK            PRIVILEGES*     TO*
 ASC*            EXISTS           LONG            PUBLIC*         TRIGGER
 AUDIT           FILE             MAXEXTENTS      RAW             UID
 BETWEEN*        FLOAT*           MINUS           RENAME          UNION*
 BY*             FOR*             MLSLABEL        RESOURCE        UNIQUE*
 CHAR*           FROM*            MODE            REVOKE*         UPDATE*
 CHECK*          GRANT*           MODIFY          ROW             USER*
 CLUSTER         GROUP*           NOAUDIT         ROWID           VALIDATE
 COLUMN          HAVING*          NOCOMPRESS      ROWNUM          VALUES*
 COMMENT         IDENTIFIED       NOT*            ROWS*           VARCHAR*
 COMPRESS        IMMEDIATE*       NOWAIT          SELECT*         VARCHAR2
 CONNECT*        IN*              NULL*           SESSION*        VIEW*
 CREATE*         INCREMENT        NUMBER          SET*            WHENEVER*
 CURRENT*        INDEX            OF*             SHARE           WHERE
 DATE*           INITIAL          OFFLINE         SIZE*           WITH*
 DECIMAL*        INSERT*          ON*             SMALLINT*
.

Reserved words for PL/SQL

SQL> help RESERVED WORDS (PL/SQL)

 RESERVED WORDS (PL/SQL)
 -----------------------

 PL/SQL Reserved Words have special meaning in PL/SQL, and may not be used
 for identifier names (unless enclosed in "quotes").

 An asterisk (*) indicates words are also SQL Reserved Words.

 ALL*            DESC*           JAVA            PACKAGE         SUBTYPE
 ALTER*          DISTINCT*       LEVEL*          PARTITION       SUCCESSFUL*
 AND*            DO              LIKE*           PCTFREE*        SUM
 ANY*            DROP*           LIMITED         PLS_INTEGER     SYNONYM*
 ARRAY           ELSE*           LOCK*           POSITIVE        SYSDATE*
 AS*             ELSIF           LONG*           POSITIVEN       TABLE*
 ASC*            END             LOOP            PRAGMA          THEN*
 AT              EXCEPTION       MAX             PRIOR*          TIME
 AUTHID          EXCLUSIVE*      MIN             PRIVATE         TIMESTAMP
 AVG             EXECUTE         MINUS*          PROCEDURE       TIMEZONE_ABBR
 BEGIN           EXISTS*         MINUTE          PUBLIC*         TIMEZONE_HOUR
 BETWEEN*        EXIT            MLSLABEL*       RAISE           TIMEZONE_MINUTE
 BINARY_INTEGER  EXTENDS         MOD             RANGE           TIMEZONE_REGION
 BODY            EXTRACT         MODE*           RAW*            TO*
 BOOLEAN         FALSE           MONTH           REAL            TRIGGER*
 BULK            FETCH           NATURAL         RECORD          TRUE
 BY*             FLOAT*          NATURALN        REF             TYPE
 CHAR*           FOR*            NEW             RELEASE         UI
 CHAR_BASE       FORALL          NEXTVAL         RETURN          UNION*
 CHECK*          FROM*           NOCOPY          REVERSE         UNIQUE*
 CLOSE           FUNCTION        NOT*            ROLLBACK        UPDATE*
 CLUSTER*        GOTO            NOWAIT*         ROW*            USE
 COALESCE        GROUP*          NULL*           ROWID*          USER*
 COLLECT         HAVING*         NULLIF          ROWNUM*         VALIDATE*
 COMMENT*        HEAP            NUMBER*         ROWTYPE         VALUES*
 COMMIT          HOUR            NUMBER_BASE     SAVEPOINT       VARCHAR*
 COMPRESS*       IF              OCIROWID        SECOND          VARCHAR2*
 CONNECT*        IMMEDIATE*      OF*             SELECT*         VARIANCE
 CONSTANT        IN*             ON*             SEPERATE        VIEW*
 CREATE*         INDEX*          OPAQUE          SET*            WHEN
 CURRENT*        INDICATOR       OPEN            SHARE*          WHENEVER*
 CURRVAL         INSERT*         OPERATOR        SMALLINT*       WHERE*
 CURSOR          INTEGER*        OPTION*         SPACE           WHILE
 DATE*           INTERFACE       OR*             SQL             WITH*
 DAY             INTERSECT*      ORDER*          SQLCODE         WORK
 DECIMAL*        INTERVAL        ORGANIZATION    SQLERRM         WRITE
 DECLARE         INTO*           OTHERS          START*          YEAR
 DEFAULT*        IS*             OUT             STDDEV          ZONE
 DELETE*         ISOLATION
.

HTH

😉

Marco Gralike Written by:

One Comment

  1. Mike
    April 4

    Rejected by admin – Commercial spam

Comments are closed.