Reserved words in Oracle databases

In Oracle databases, many words are reserved for specific uses or entirely. This helps eliminate typos in SQL statements.

You can find information about which words are reserved and whether they are reserved for a specific purpose or permanently in the V$RESERVED_WORDS view.

For example, the word TABLE is a reserved word. We cannot use this word in information such as table names or column names. If used, it will give errors like the ones below.

SQL> create table TABLE (
2 ad varchar(100),
3 surname varchar(100),
4 tel number(5)
);
create table TABLE
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00903: invalid table name



SQL> create table a (
table varchar(100),
size number(2);
table varchar(100),
*
ERROR at line 2:
ORA-00904: : invalid identifier

However, if we absolutely have to use them, there is a way to do it. Reserved words can be used within double quotation marks (“).

We can also use the word “reserve” in object names, as in the examples below.

SQL> create table "TABLE" (
ad varchar(100),
surname varchar(100),
tel number(5)); 2 3 4

Table created.

SQL> create table a (
"table" varchar(100),
size number(2)); 2 3

Table created.

For listing all of reserved words , you can query view as below :

select * from V$RESERVED_WORDS where RESERVED='Y';