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Keywords

This article introduces the keywords in TiDB, the differences between reserved words and non-reserved words and summarizes all keywords for the query.

Keywords are words that have special meanings in SQL statements, such as SELECT, UPDATE, and DELETE. Some of them can be used as identifiers directly, which are called non-reserved keywords. Some of them require special treatment before being used as identifiers, which are called reserved keywords. However, there are special non-reserved keywords that might still require special treatment. It is recommended that you treat them as reserved keywords.

To use the reserved keywords as identifiers, you must enclose them in backticks `:

CREATE TABLE select (a INT);

ERROR 1105 (HY000): line 0 column 19 near " (a INT)" (total length 27)

CREATE TABLE `select` (a INT);

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.09 sec)

The non-reserved keywords do not require backticks, such as BEGIN and END, which can be successfully used as identifiers in the following statement:

CREATE TABLE `select` (BEGIN int, END int);

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.09 sec)

In the special case, the reserved keywords do not need backticks if they are used with the . delimiter:

CREATE TABLE test.select (BEGIN int, END int);

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.08 sec)

Keyword list

The following list shows the keywords in TiDB. Reserved keywords are marked with (R). Reserved keywords for Window Functions are marked with (R-Window). Special non-reserved keywords that need to be escaped with backticks ` are marked with (S).

ACCOUNT
ACTION
ADD (R)
ADMIN (R)
ADVISE
AFTER
AGAINST
AGO
ALGORITHM
ALL (R)
ALTER (R)
ALWAYS
ANALYZE (R)
AND (R)
ANY
AS (R)
ASC (R)
ASCII
AUTO_ID_CACHE
AUTO_INCREMENT
AUTO_RANDOM
AUTO_RANDOM_BASE
AVG
AVG_ROW_LENGTH

BACKEND
BACKUP
BACKUPS
BEGIN
BETWEEN (R)
BIGINT (R)
BINARY (R)
BINDING
BINDINGS
BINLOG
BIT
BLOB (R)
BLOCK
BOOL
BOOLEAN
BOTH (R)
BTREE
BUCKETS (R)
BUILTINS (R)
BY (R)
BYTE

CACHE
CANCEL (R)
CAPTURE
CASCADE (R)
CASCADED
CASE (R)
CHAIN
CHANGE (R)
CHAR (R)
CHARACTER (R)
CHARSET
CHECK (R)
CHECKPOINT
CHECKSUM
CIPHER
CLEANUP
CLIENT
CMSKETCH (R)
COALESCE
COLLATE (R)
COLLATION
COLUMN (R)
COLUMNS
COLUMN_FORMAT
COMMENT
COMMIT
COMMITTED
COMPACT
COMPRESSED
COMPRESSION
CONCURRENCY
CONFIG
CONNECTION
CONSISTENT
CONSTRAINT (R)
CONTEXT
CONVERT (R)
CPU
CREATE (R)
CROSS (R)
CSV_BACKSLASH_ESCAPE
CSV_DELIMITER
CSV_HEADER
CSV_NOT_NULL
CSV_NULL
CSV_SEPARATOR
CSV_TRIM_LAST_SEPARATORS
CUME_DIST (R-Window)
CURRENT
CURRENT_DATE (R)
CURRENT_ROLE (R)
CURRENT_TIME (R)
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP (R)
CURRENT_USER (R)
CYCLE

DATA
DATABASE (R)
DATABASES (R)
DATE
DATETIME
DAY
DAY_HOUR (R)
DAY_MICROSECOND (R)
DAY_MINUTE (R)
DAY_SECOND (R)
DDL (R)
DEALLOCATE
DECIMAL (R)
DEFAULT (R)
DEFINER
DELAYED (R)
DELAY_KEY_WRITE
DELETE (R)
DENSE_RANK (R-Window)
DEPTH (R)
DESC (R)
DESCRIBE (R)
DIRECTORY
DISABLE
DISCARD
DISK
DISTINCT (R)
DISTINCTROW (R)
DIV (R)
DO
DOUBLE (R)
DRAINER (R)
DROP (R)
DUAL (R)
DUPLICATE
DYNAMIC

ELSE (R)
ENABLE
ENCLOSED (R)
ENCRYPTION
END
ENFORCED
ENGINE
ENGINES
ENUM
ERROR
ERRORS
ESCAPE
ESCAPED (R)
EVENT
EVENTS
EVOLVE
EXCEPT (R)
EXCHANGE
EXCLUSIVE
EXECUTE
EXISTS (R)
EXPANSION
EXPIRE
EXPLAIN (R)
EXTENDED

FALSE (R)
FAULTS
FIELDS
FILE
FIRST
FIRST_VALUE (R-Window)
FIXED
FLOAT (R)
FLUSH
FOLLOWING
FOR (R)
FORCE (R)
FOREIGN (R)
FORMAT
FROM (R)
FULL
FULLTEXT (R)
FUNCTION

GENERAL
GENERATED (R)
GLOBAL
GRANT (R)
GRANTS
GROUP (R)
GROUPS (R-Window)

HASH
HAVING (R)
HIGH_PRIORITY (R)
HISTORY
HOSTS
HOUR
HOUR_MICROSECOND (R)
HOUR_MINUTE (R)
HOUR_SECOND (R)

IDENTIFIED
IF (R)
IGNORE (R)
IMPORT
IMPORTS
IN (R)
INCREMENT
INCREMENTAL
INDEX (R)
INDEXES
INFILE (R)
INNER (R)
INSERT (R)
INSERT_METHOD
INSTANCE
INT (R)
INT1 (R)
INT2 (R)
INT3 (R)
INT4 (R)
INT8 (R)
INTEGER (R)
INTERVAL (R)
INTO (R)
INVISIBLE
INVOKER
IO
IPC
IS (R)
ISOLATION
ISSUER

JOB (R)
JOBS (R)
JOIN (R)
JSON

KEY (R)
KEYS (R)
KEY_BLOCK_SIZE
KILL (R)

LABELS
LAG (R-Window)
LANGUAGE
LAST
LASTVAL
LAST_BACKUP
LAST_VALUE (R-Window)
LEAD (R-Window)
LEADING (R)
LEFT (R)
LESS
LEVEL
LIKE (R)
LIMIT (R)
LINEAR (R)
LINES (R)
LIST
LOAD (R)
LOCAL
LOCALTIME (R)
LOCALTIMESTAMP (R)
LOCATION
LOCK (R)
LOGS
LONG (R)
LONGBLOB (R)
LONGTEXT (R)
LOW_PRIORITY (R)

MASTER
MATCH (R)
MAXVALUE (R)
MAX_CONNECTIONS_PER_HOUR
MAX_IDXNUM
MAX_MINUTES
MAX_QUERIES_PER_HOUR
MAX_ROWS
MAX_UPDATES_PER_HOUR
MAX_USER_CONNECTIONS
MB
MEDIUMBLOB (R)
MEDIUMINT (R)
MEDIUMTEXT (R)
MEMORY
MERGE
MICROSECOND
MINUTE
MINUTE_MICROSECOND (R)
MINUTE_SECOND (R)
MINVALUE
MIN_ROWS
MOD (R)
MODE
MODIFY
MONTH

NAMES
NATIONAL
NATURAL (R)
NCHAR
NEVER
NEXT
NEXTVAL
NO
NOCACHE
NOCYCLE
NODEGROUP
NODE_ID (R)
NODE_STATE (R)
NOMAXVALUE
NOMINVALUE
NONE
NOT (R)
NOWAIT
NO_WRITE_TO_BINLOG (R)
NTH_VALUE (R-Window)
NTILE (R-Window)
NULL (R)
NULLS
NUMERIC (R)
NVARCHAR

OFFSET
ON (R)
ONLINE
ONLY
ON_DUPLICATE
OPEN
OPTIMISTIC (R)
OPTIMIZE (R)
OPTION (R)
OPTIONALLY (R)
OR (R)
ORDER (R)
OUTER (R)
OUTFILE (R)
OVER (R-Window)

PACK_KEYS
PAGE
PARSER
PARTIAL
PARTITION (R)
PARTITIONING
PARTITIONS
PASSWORD
PERCENT_RANK (R-Window)
PER_DB
PER_TABLE
PESSIMISTIC (R)
PLACEMENT (S)
PLUGINS
PRECEDING
PRECISION (R)
PREPARE
PRE_SPLIT_REGIONS
PRIMARY (R)
PRIVILEGES
PROCEDURE (R)
PROCESS
PROCESSLIST
PROFILE
PROFILES
PUMP (R)

QUARTER
QUERIES
QUERY
QUICK

RANGE (R)
RANK (R-Window)
RATE_LIMIT
READ (R)
REAL (R)
REBUILD
RECOVER
REDUNDANT
REFERENCES (R)
REGEXP (R)
REGION (R)
REGIONS (R)
RELEASE (R)
RELOAD
REMOVE
RENAME (R)
REORGANIZE
REPAIR
REPEAT (R)
REPEATABLE
REPLACE (R)
REPLICA
REPLICATION
REQUIRE (R)
RESPECT
RESTORE
RESTORES
RESTRICT (R)
REVERSE
REVOKE (R)
RIGHT (R)
RLIKE (R)
ROLE
ROLLBACK
ROUTINE
ROW (R)
ROWS (R-Window)
ROW_COUNT
ROW_FORMAT
ROW_NUMBER (R-Window)
RTREE

SAMPLES (R)
SECOND
SECONDARY_ENGINE
SECONDARY_LOAD
SECONDARY_UNLOAD
SECOND_MICROSECOND (R)
SECURITY
SELECT (R)
SEND_CREDENTIALS_TO_TIKV
SEPARATOR
SEQUENCE
SERIAL
SERIALIZABLE
SESSION
SET (R)
SETVAL
SHARD_ROW_ID_BITS
SHARE
SHARED
SHOW (R)
SHUTDOWN
SIGNED
SIMPLE
SKIP_SCHEMA_FILES
SLAVE
SLOW
SMALLINT (R)
SNAPSHOT
SOME
SOURCE
SPATIAL (R)
SPLIT (R)
SQL (R)
SQL_BIG_RESULT (R)
SQL_BUFFER_RESULT
SQL_CACHE
SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS (R)
SQL_NO_CACHE
SQL_SMALL_RESULT (R)
SQL_TSI_DAY
SQL_TSI_HOUR
SQL_TSI_MINUTE
SQL_TSI_MONTH
SQL_TSI_QUARTER
SQL_TSI_SECOND
SQL_TSI_WEEK
SQL_TSI_YEAR
SSL (R)
START
STARTING (R)
STATS (R)
STATS_AUTO_RECALC
STATS_BUCKETS (R)
STATS_HEALTHY (R)
STATS_HISTOGRAMS (R)
STATS_META (R)
STATS_PERSISTENT
STATS_SAMPLE_PAGES
STATUS
STORAGE
STORED (R)
STRAIGHT_JOIN (R)
STRICT_FORMAT
SUBJECT
SUBPARTITION
SUBPARTITIONS
SUPER
SWAPS
SWITCHES
SYSTEM_TIME

TABLE (R)
TABLES
TABLESPACE
TABLE_CHECKSUM
TEMPORARY
TEMPTABLE
TERMINATED (R)
TEXT
THAN
THEN (R)
TIDB (R)
TIFLASH (R)
TIKV_IMPORTER
TIME
TIMESTAMP
TINYBLOB (R)
TINYINT (R)
TINYTEXT (R)
TO (R)
TOKEN_ISSUER
TOPN (R)
TRACE
TRADITIONAL
TRAILING (R)
TRANSACTION
TRIGGER (R)
TRIGGERS
TRUE (R)
TRUNCATE
TYPE

UNBOUNDED
UNCOMMITTED
UNDEFINED
UNICODE
UNION (R)
UNIQUE (R)
UNKNOWN
UNLOCK (R)
UNSIGNED (R)
UPDATE (R)
USAGE (R)
USE (R)
USER
USING (R)
UTC_DATE (R)
UTC_TIME (R)
UTC_TIMESTAMP (R)

VALIDATION
VALUE
VALUES (R)
VARBINARY (R)
VARCHAR (R)
VARCHARACTER (R)
VARIABLES
VARYING (R)
VIEW
VIRTUAL (R)
VISIBLE

WARNINGS
WEEK
WEIGHT_STRING
WHEN (R)
WHERE (R)
WIDTH (R)
WINDOW (R-Window)
WITH (R)
WITHOUT
WRITE (R)

X509
XOR (R)

YEAR
YEAR_MONTH (R)

ZEROFILL (R)