Escaping or Renaming: How to Handle Column Names That Clash with SQL Keywords in SQL Server and MySQL

1. SELECT `order` FROM mytable;  (MySQL)
   

   or

   SELECT [order] FROM mytable;  (SQL Server)
   

MySQL:

CREATE TABLE Orders (
  OrderID INT PRIMARY KEY,
  `OrderDate` DATE,  -- Escape "OrderDate" with backticks
  CustomerName VARCHAR(255)
);

SELECT `OrderDate`, CustomerName FROM Orders;

SQL Server:

CREATE TABLE Orders (
  OrderID INT PRIMARY KEY,
  [OrderDate] DATE,  -- Escape "OrderDate" with square brackets
  CustomerName VARCHAR(255)
);

SELECT [OrderDate], CustomerName FROM Orders;

Renaming the Column:

This example assumes you can modify the table structure.

ALTER TABLE Orders RENAME COLUMN `OrderDate` TO OrderPlaced;  -- MySQL

ALTER TABLE Orders RENAME COLUMN [OrderDate] TO OrderPlaced;  -- SQL Server

Here's an example using an alias:

SELECT OrderDate AS "Date of Order", CustomerName FROM Orders;