Friday, July 29, 2016

Checking out the Oracle Reserved Words using V$RESERVED_WORDS

When working with SQL or PL/SQL we all know there are some words we cannot use in our code or to label various parts of it. These languages have a number of reserved words that form the language.
Somethings it can be a challenge to know what is or isn't a reserved word. Yes we can check the Oracle documentation for the SQL reserved words and the PL/SQL reserved words. There are other references and list in the Oracle documentation listing the reserved and key words.
But we also have the concept of Key Words (as opposed to reserved words). In the SQL documentation these are are not listed. In the PL/SQL documentation most are listed.
What is a Key Word in Oracle ?
Oracle SQL keywords are not reserved. BUT Oracle uses them internally in specific ways. If you use these words as names for objects and object parts, then your SQL statements may be more difficult to read and may lead to unpredictable results.
But if we didn't have access to the documentation (or google) how can we find out what the key words are. You can use the data dictionary view called V$RESERVED_WORDS.
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But this view isn't available to version. So if you want to get your hands on it you will need the SYS user. Alternatively if you are a DBA you could share this with all your developers.
When we query this view we get 2,175 entries (for 12.1.0.2 Oracle Database).
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