Comments on: `;`.`*`.`.` is a valid column name http://code.openark.org/blog/mysql/is-a-valid-column-name Blog by Shlomi Noach Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:47:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: themattreid http://code.openark.org/blog/mysql/is-a-valid-column-name/comment-page-1#comment-862 themattreid Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:42:40 +0000 http://code.openark.org/blog/?p=502#comment-862 Those are valid names, but are a total hassle to deal with when writing automation scripts and general day to day DBA duties. Having to always escape table/schema names is annoying at best, and time consuming as well. I prefer to tell my clients to follow some basic naming convention rules: stay away from special characters like $,%,^,#,&,*,; and so forth. In addition, using a dash "-" in names is possible, but an underscore "_" is preferred. Just because we can do things doesn't always mean we should :) Nice write up though, I think a lot of people forget or just never learned about the back tick escapes in MySQL. Those are valid names, but are a total hassle to deal with when writing automation scripts and general day to day DBA duties. Having to always escape table/schema names is annoying at best, and time consuming as well.

I prefer to tell my clients to follow some basic naming convention rules: stay away from special characters like $,%,^,#,&,*,; and so forth. In addition, using a dash "-" in names is possible, but an underscore "_" is preferred.

Just because we can do things doesn't always mean we should :)

Nice write up though, I think a lot of people forget or just never learned about the back tick escapes in MySQL.

]]> By: shlomi http://code.openark.org/blog/mysql/is-a-valid-column-name/comment-page-1#comment-637 shlomi Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:13:38 +0000 http://code.openark.org/blog/?p=502#comment-637 @Zilivinas - thanks for the link! @sergei - thanks, also fixed comment's HTML issues. @Zilivinas - thanks for the link!

@sergei - thanks, also fixed comment's HTML issues.

]]> By: Sergei Golubchik http://code.openark.org/blog/mysql/is-a-valid-column-name/comment-page-1#comment-635 Sergei Golubchik Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:42:04 +0000 http://code.openark.org/blog/?p=502#comment-635 fine, thanks HTML markup :) http://pastebin.com/m29081b3d fine, thanks HTML markup :)

http://pastebin.com/m29081b3d

]]> By: Sergei Golubchik http://code.openark.org/blog/mysql/is-a-valid-column-name/comment-page-1#comment-634 Sergei Golubchik Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:38:30 +0000 http://code.openark.org/blog/?p=502#comment-634 Two comments: 1. In 5.1 table names are converted to a safe representation, you won't see these dangerous characters in a filename there. 2. All these characters are actually allowed in identifiers by the standard, MySQL must support all them. In a delimited identifier one can have *any* character: <delimited identifier> ::= <double quote> <delimited identifier body> <double quote> <delimited identifier body> ::= <delimited identifier part>... <delimited identifier part> ::= <nondoublequote character> | <doublequote symbol> <doublequote symbol> ::= "" !! two consecutive double quote characters ... 6) A <nondoublequote character> is any character of the source language character set other than a <double quote>. Two comments:

1. In 5.1 table names are converted to a safe representation, you won't see these dangerous characters in a filename there.

2. All these characters are actually allowed in identifiers by the standard, MySQL must support all them. In a delimited identifier one can have *any* character:

<delimited identifier> ::= <double quote> <delimited identifier body> <double quote>
<delimited identifier body> ::= <delimited identifier part>...
<delimited identifier part> ::=
<nondoublequote character>
| <doublequote symbol>
<doublequote symbol> ::= "" !! two consecutive double quote characters
...
6) A <nondoublequote character> is any character of the source language character set other than a <double
quote>.

]]> By: Zilvinas http://code.openark.org/blog/mysql/is-a-valid-column-name/comment-page-1#comment-633 Zilvinas Thu, 12 Feb 2009 15:27:46 +0000 http://code.openark.org/blog/?p=502#comment-633 Nice insights there. I think you will find this link interesting: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/identifier-mapping.html Nice insights there. I think you will find this link interesting: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/identifier-mapping.html

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