Should the query statement write in uppercase or lowercase? (Example) (2024)

FAQs

Should SQL query be uppercase or lowercase? ›

ANSI SQL is case-insensitive, so it technically doesnt matter. However, it is a near universal coding standard that SQL reserved words be written in all uppercase.

No, the SQL language is not case-sensitive. Any SQL command text can mixed uppercase and lowercase letters.

SQL is often case-sensitive when it comes to string comparisons, meaning that it distinguishes between uppercase and lowercase characters. For example, 'A' and 'a' are considered distinct values in a case-sensitive SQL environment.

I tend to always make "functions" upper case, such as SELECT, FROM, LEFT JOIN, WHERE, IN, GROUP BY, etc. I also tend to use upper case aliases so A., B., C., etc. For field names I used mixed case and will take whatever is on the table.

Use all lowercase for column and table names and to separate words with an underscore (“_”). For example, start_date and end_date as column names as opposed to StartingDate and EndingDate , and employees as a table name as opposed to Employees .

If you want to display a string in uppercase, use the SQL UPPER() function. This function takes only one argument: the string column that you want to convert to uppercase.

Back in the days, there were no fancy linters and so keywords weren't highlighted in any way when you wrote code. The SQL capitalization provides a quick and easy way to visually break up the different parts of the query, helping people differentiate between the SQL parts and the database objects parts of the queries.

In SQL, when it comes to the words used for commands and operations (like SELECT, FROM, WHERE), you can write them in all uppercase, all lowercase, or even a mix of both. The database system doesn't really care about capitalization here.

While the SQL keywords you're referring to are case-insensitive (FROM, SELECT, WHERE, ON, IN, AS, etc.), it is indeed common practice to capitalize these words. Combined with proper spacing and indenting, this practice will make your SQL statements much easier to read and refer back to later on.

This scalar TSQL function converts any text string to proper case (mixed case with initial upper case letter followed by lower case letters). Typically used to convert patient, provider, insurance names, etc.

Are SQL like queries case-sensitive? ›

Important to note that the pattern passed into the LIKE operator is case-sensitive, unlike its case-insensitive cousin, ILIKE.

Common nouns are not normally capitalized (unless they are the first word of a sentence or part of a title). Monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy are forms of government classified according to which people have the authority to rule. There are no proper nouns in the example above.

In SQL there are no official rules on how to format text in queries but there are some unofficial guidelines that many SQL users follow. Probably the most common and well-known is that all keywords such as SELECT, FROM, WHERE, GROUP BY, ORDER BY etc. should be written in capital letters.

Guidelines are thin lines which serve as guide to ensure uniform height and width of letters when lettering. The four parts of guidelines are the cap-line, waistline, baseline and drop-line.

By default, the collation is case-insensitive, so the LIKE operator will perform a case-insensitive search. However, if the column has a case-sensitive collation, the LIKE operator will be case-sensitive.

In either case, table names should only contain alphabetic characters (no "_" or "-"). When creating a new table, you shoud use lowercase_underscore conventions for multi-word column names (no capitalization).