sql - Table or column name cannot start with numeric?

Question

I tried to create table named 15909434_user with syntax like below:

CREATE TABLE 15909434_user ( ... )

It would produced error of course. Then, after I tried to have a bit research with google, I found a good article here that describe:

When you create an object in PostgreSQL, you give that object a name. Every table has a name, every column has a name, and so on. PostgreSQL uses a single data type to define all object names: the name type.

A value of type name is a string of 63 or fewer characters. A name must start with a letter or an underscore; the rest of the string can contain letters, digits, and underscores.

...

If you find that you need to create an object that does not meet these rules, you can enclose the name in double quotes. Wrapping a name in quotes creates a quoted identifier. For example, you could create a table whose name is "3.14159"—the double quotes are required, but are not actually a part of the name (that is, they are not stored and do not count against the 63-character limit). ...

Okay, now I know how to solve this by use this syntax (putting double quote on table name):

CREATE TABLE "15909434_user" ( ... )

You can create table or column name such as "15909434_user" and also user_15909434, but cannot create table or column name begin with numeric without use of double quotes.

So then, I am curious about the reason behind that (except it is a convention). Why this convention applied? Is it to avoid something like syntax limitation or other reason?

Thanks in advance for your attention!

Answer 1

It comes from the original sql standards, which through several layers of indirection eventually get to an identifier start block, which is one of several things, but primarily it is "a simple latin letter". There are other things too that can be used, but if you want to see all the details, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL-92 and follow the links to the actual standard ( page 85 )

Having non numeric identifier introducers makes writing a parser to decode sql for execution easier and quicker, but a quoted form is fine too.

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Edit: Why is it easier for the parser?

The problem for a parser is more in the SELECT-list clause than the FROM clause. The select-list is the list of expressions that are selected from the tables, and this is very flexible, allowing simple column names and numeric expressions. Consider the following:

SELECT 2e2 + 3.4 FROM ...

If table names, and column names could start with numerics, is 2e2 a column name or a valid number (e format is typically permitted in numeric literals) and is 3.4 the table "3" and column "4" or is it the numeric value 3.4 ?

Having the rule that identifiers start with simple latin letters (and some other specific things) means that a parser that sees 2e2 can quickly discern this will be a numeric expression, same deal with 3.4

While it would be possible to devise a scheme to allow numeric leading characters, this might lead to even more obscure rules (opinion), so this rule is a nice solution. If you allowed digits first, then it would always need quoting, which is arguably not as 'clean'.

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Disclaimer, I've simplified the above slightly, ignoring corelation names to keep it short. I'm not totally familiar with postgres, but have double checked the above answer against Oracle RDB documentation and sql spec