Delimited identifiers

A delimited identifier is an identifier that is enclosed in double quotation marks.

When the DELIMIDENT environment variable is set, the database server interprets strings of characters in double quotation marks (") as delimited identifiers and strings of characters in single quotation marks (') as data strings. This interpretation of single and double quotation marks is compliant with the ANSI/ISO standard for SQL.

In a nondefault locale, you can specify valid non-ASCII characters of the current code set in most delimited identifiers. You can put non-ASCII characters in a delimited identifier if you can put non-ASCII characters in the undelimited form of the same identifier.

For example, SQL identifiers that support non-ASCII characters indicates that you can specify non-ASCII characters in the declaration of an index name. Thus, you can include non-ASCII characters in an undelimited index name, or in an index name that you have enclosed in double quotation marks to make it a delimited identifier, as in the following SQL statement:

CREATE INDEX "A¹A²#B¹B²" ON mytable (mycol)

For a description of delimited identifiers, see the Identifier segment in the HCL OneDB™ Guide to SQL: Syntax.