Ensuring Portability and Readability: A Guide to Database Object Naming Conventions

MySQL:

• By default, MySQL uses backticks (`) to quote object names. This allows you to use names that would otherwise be problematic, such as those containing spaces, special characters, or keywords.

Example:

CREATE TABLE `My Table` (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  name VARCHAR(255)
);

SQL Server:

• SQL Server offers two options for delimited identifiers:
  • Double quotes ("): This is the standard SQL behavior and is enabled by setting the QUOTED_IDENTIFIER option to ON.
  • Square brackets ([]): This is another common option available in SQL Server.

Example (double quotes):

CREATE TABLE "My Table" (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  name VARCHAR(255)
);

Example (square brackets):

CREATE TABLE [My Table] (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  name VARCHAR(255)
);

Other databases:

• Different database systems might have their own conventions for handling object names. For example, some databases might not require any quotes for simple names, while others might use single quotes (').

Related Issues and Solutions:

• Portability: If you write code that relies on a specific quoting mechanism, it might not be portable to other databases. To address this, you can use tools or libraries that handle quoting conventions for different databases.
• Readability: Using descriptive and consistent naming conventions can improve code readability, regardless of the quoting mechanism used.