diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml index 918d91a05c..30f57e5ccf 100644 --- a/doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml +++ b/doc/src/sgml/syntax.sgml @@ -340,17 +340,23 @@ A comment beginning with "/*" extends to the first occurrence of "*/". Names - Names in SQL are sequences of less than NAMEDATALEN alphanumeric characters, - starting with an alphabetic character. By default, NAMEDATALEN is set - to 32 (but at the time the system is built, NAMEDATALEN can be changed - by changing the #define in - src/backend/include/postgres.h). - Underscore ("_") is considered an alphabetic character. + Names in SQL must begin with a letter + (a-z) or underscore + (_). + Subsequent characters in a name can be letters, digits + (0-9), + or underscores. The system uses no more than NAMEDATALEN-1 characters + of a name; longer names can be written in queries, but they will be + truncated. + By default, NAMEDATALEN is 32 so the maximum name length is 31 (but + at the time the system is built, NAMEDATALEN can be changed in + src/include/postgres_ext.h). Names containing other characters may be formed by surrounding them - with double quotes. For example, table or column names may contain + with double quotes ("). For example, table or column + names may contain otherwise disallowed characters such as spaces, ampersands, etc. if quoted. Quoting a name also makes it case-sensitive, whereas unquoted names are always folded to lower case. For example, @@ -359,6 +365,12 @@ A comment beginning with "/*" extends to the first occurrence of "*/". considered the same by Postgres, but "Foo" is a different name. + + + Double quotes can also be used to protect a name that would otherwise + be taken to be an SQL keyword. For example, IN + is a keyword but "IN" is a name. +