Common elements in SQL syntax

This section lists language elements that are found in the syntax of many SQL statements.

For more information about the elements described here, see Identifiers, SQL data types, Search conditions, Expressions, or Strings.

  • column-name   An identifier that represents the name of a column. See Identifiers.

  • condition   An expression that evaluates to TRUE, FALSE, or UNKNOWN. See Truth value search conditions.

  • connection-name   A string representing the name of an active connection. See SQL Anywhere database connections.

  • data-type   A storage data type. See SQL data types.

  • expression   An expression. A common example of an expression in syntax is a column name. See Expressions.

  • filename   A string containing a file name.

  • hostvar   A C language variable, declared as a host variable preceded by a colon. See Using host variables.

  • indicator-variable   A second host variable of type short int immediately following a normal host variable. It must also be preceded by a colon. Indicator variables are used to pass NULL values to and from the database. See Using host variables.

  • materialized-view-name   An identifier that represents the name of a materialized view. See Working with materialized views.

  • number   Any sequence of digits followed by an optional decimal part and preceded by an optional negative sign. Optionally, the number can be followed by an E and then an exponent. For example,
    42
    -4.038
    .001
    3.4e10
    1e-10

  • owner   An identifier representing the user ID who owns a database object. See Permissions acquired through ownership of an object.

  • query-block   A query block is a simple query expression, or a query expression with an ORDER BY clause.

  • query-expression   A query expression can be a SELECT, UNION, INTERSECT, or EXCEPT block (that is, a statement that does not contain an ORDER BY, WITH, FOR, FOR XML, or OPTION clause), or any combination of such blocks.

  • role-name   An identifier representing the role name of a foreign key. In conceptual database modeling, a verb or phrase that describes a relationship from one point of view. You can describe each relationship with two roles. Examples of roles are "contains" and "is a member of."

  • savepoint-name   An identifier that represents the name of a savepoint. See Savepoints within transactions.

  • search-condition   A condition that evaluates to TRUE, FALSE, or UNKNOWN. See Search conditions.

  • special-value   One of the special values described in Special values.

  • statement-label   An identifier that represents the label of a loop or compound statement. See Control statements.

  • statement-list   A list of SQL statements, each ending with a semicolon.

  • string-expression   An expression that resolves to a string. See Expressions.

  • table-list   A list of table names, which may include correlation names. See FROM clause and Key joins.

  • table-name   An identifier that represents the name of a table. See Identifiers.

  • userid   An identifier representing a user name. See Identifiers.

  • variable-name   An identifier that represents a variable name. See Variables.

  • window-name   An identifier that represents a window name. Used in syntax related to window definition (for example, the WINDOW clause, and window functions such as RANK). See Identifiers.