> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cockroachlabs.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Keywords & Identifiers

SQL statements consist of two fundamental components:

* [**Keywords**](#keywords): Words with specific meaning in SQL like `CREATE`, `INDEX`, and `BOOL`
* [**Identifiers**](#identifiers): Names for things like databases and some functions

## Keywords

Keywords make up SQL's vocabulary and can have specific meaning in statements. Each SQL keyword that CockroachDB supports is on one of four lists:

* [Reserved Keywords](https://docs.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/sql-grammar.md)
* [Type Function Name Keywords](https://docs.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/sql-grammar.md)
* [Column Name Keywords](https://docs.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/sql-grammar.md)
* [Unreserved Keywords](https://docs.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/sql-grammar.md)

Reserved keywords have fixed meanings and are not typically allowed as identifiers. All other types of keywords are considered non-reserved; they have special meanings in certain contexts and can be used as identifiers in other contexts.

### Keyword uses

Most users asking about keywords want to know more about them in terms of:

* **Names of objects**, covered on this page in [Identifiers](#identifiers)
* **Syntax**, covered in our pages [SQL Statements](https://docs.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/sql-statements.md) and [SQL Grammar](https://docs.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/sql-grammar.md)

## Identifiers

Identifiers are most commonly used as names of objects like databases, tables, or columns — because of this, the terms "name" and "identifier" are often used interchangeably. However, identifiers also have less-common uses, such as changing column labels with `SELECT`.

### Rules for identifiers

In our [SQL grammar](https://docs.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/sql-grammar.md), all values that accept an `identifier` must:

* Begin with a Unicode letter or an underscore (\_). Subsequent characters can be letters, underscores, digits (0-9), or dollar signs (\$).
* Not equal any [SQL keyword](#keywords) unless the keyword is accepted by the element's syntax. For example, [`name`](https://docs.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/sql-grammar) accepts Unreserved or Column Name keywords.

To bypass either of these rules, simply surround the identifier with double-quotes ("). You can also use double-quotes to preserve case-sensitivity in database, table, view, and column names. However, all references to such identifiers must also include double-quotes.

> [!NOTE]
>
> Some statements have additional requirements for identifiers. For example, each table in a database must have a unique name. These requirements are documented on each statement's page.

## See also

* [SQL Statements](https://docs.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/sql-statements.md)
* [Full SQL Grammar](https://docs.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/sql-grammar.md)
* [SQL Name Resolution](https://docs.cockroachlabs.com/docs/stable/sql-name-resolution.md)