Should SQL functions be uppercase or lowercase?

Question

I am new in SQL and I was wondering what is the right way to write the functions. I know the norm for statements like SELECT is uppercase, but what is the norm for functions? I've seen people write them with lowercase and others in uppercase.

Thanks for the help.

@ÁlvaroG.Vicario And even that is discussable, convention can change from culture to culture — Adriano Carneiro, Apr 04 '13 at 14:19
Please accept the answer that helped you solve the problem so others don't come along and try to solve the problem. Thanks. — Basic, May 13 '13 at 21:49

score 8 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 04 '13 at 14:15

8

There's no norm on that, there are standards, but those can change from company to company.

SQL code is not case sensitive.

answered Apr 04 '13 at 14:15

Adriano Carneiro

57,693
12
90
123

1

Yeah, I know and though SQL is not case sensitive, I was wondering what is the standard for functions. So what is it? – user1919052 Apr 04 '13 at 14:16

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 04 '13 at 14:18

2

Usually you should write SQL code (and SQL reserved code) in UPPERCASE and fields and other things in lowercase. But it is not necessary.

answered Apr 04 '13 at 14:18

Zeal

239
1
3

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 04 '13 at 14:25

It depends on the function a bit, but there is no requirement. There is really no norm but some vendors have specific standards / grammar, which in their eyes aids with readability (/useability) of the code.

Usually 'built-in' functions (non vendor specific) are shown in uppercase.

/* On MySQL */
SELECT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;
-> '2001-12-15 23:50:26'

Vendor specific functions are usually shown in lowercase.

A good read, on functions in general, can be found here.

Friendly King · Answer 4 · 2013-04-04T14:43:27.123

SQL keywords are routinely uppercase, but there is no, one "correct" way. Lowercase works just as well. (N.B. Many think that using uppercase keywords in SQL improves readability, although not to say that using lowercase is difficult to read.) For the most part, however, no one will be averted to something like:

SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE id="3"

Although, if you prefer, this will work as well:

select * from `users` where id='3'

Here's a list of them. Note that they are written in uppercase, but it is not required: http://developer.mimer.com/validator/sql-reserved-words.tml

Here's another good resource that I keep in my "interesting articles to read over periodically." It elaborates a bit on some somewhat interesting instances when case should be taken into consideration: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/identifier-case-sensitivity.html

Should SQL functions be uppercase or lowercase?

4 Answers4