Important: To use a nondefault locale, you must set the appropriate locale environment variables for Informix products. For more information, see "A Nondefault Locale".

Rules for Identifier Names

Identifiers That Support Non-ASCII Characters

All SQL identifiers in Figure 3-1 can be used with Universal Server databases, OnLine Dynamic Server databases, or INFORMIX-SE databases unless the Notes column indicates otherwise.

Figure 3-1
SQL Identifiers That Support Non-ASCII Characters

(1 of 3)

SQL Identifier	SQL Segment	Notes
Column name	Expression	An example of an SQL statement that creates a column name is CREATE TABLE.
Connection name	Quoted string	An example of an SQL statement that creates a connection name is CONNECT. For more information, see "Specifying Quoted Strings".
Constraint name	Constraint name	An example of an SQL statement that creates a constraint name is CREATE TABLE.
Cursor name	Identifier	An example of an SQL statement that creates a cursor name is DECLARE. For more information, see "Using Non-ASCII Characters in Source Code".
Database name	Database name	An example of an SQL statement that creates a database name is CREATE DATABASE Restrictions apply when you use multibyte characters for database names in SE. For more information, see "Generating Non-ASCII Filenames".
Filename	None	An example of an SQL statement that specifies a pathname and filename is LOAD. The syntax for pathnames and filenames (including log files) depends on the operating system. If you use multibyte characters in pathnames, you limit portability of the files to those operating systems that can support multibyte filenames. For more information, see "Generating Non-ASCII Filenames", page 6-4, and page 7-4.
Host variable name	None	An example of an SQL statement that specifies a host variable is FETCH. For more information, see "Using Non-ASCII Characters in Source Code".
Index name	Index name	An example of an SQL statement that creates an index name is CREATE INDEX.
Role name	Identifier	An example of an SQL statement that creates a role name is CREATE ROLE. You cannot execute statements that are related to roles in SE.
Statement identifier	Identifier	An example of an SQL statement that creates a statement identifier is PREPARE. For more information, see "Using Non-ASCII Characters in Source Code".
Stored procedure name	Procedure name	An example of an SQL statement that creates a stored procedure name is CREATE PROCEDURE.
Stored procedure variable name	Expression	An example of an SQL statement that creates a stored procedure variable name is CREATE PROCEDURE.
Synonym name	Synonym name	An example of an SQL statement that creates a synonym name is CREATE SYNONYM.
Table name	Table name	An example of an SQL statement that creates a table name is CREATE TABLE. Restrictions apply when you use multibyte characters for table names in SE. For more information, see "Generating Non-ASCII Filenames".
Trigger correlation name	Identifier	An example of an SQL statement that creates a trigger correlation name is CREATE TRIGGER.
Trigger name	Identifier	An example of an SQL statement that creates a trigger name is CREATE TRIGGER.
View name	View name	An example of an SQL statement that creates a view name is CREATE VIEW.

References to SQL Segments

When you look up a particular object in Figure 3-1, keep in mind that the simple name of the object accepts multibyte characters, but the other identifiers in the syntax for that object accept multibyte characters only if they also appear in the table. For example, the database name identifier within the Index Name segment accepts multibyte characters, but the database-server-name identifier within the Index Name segment does not accept multibyte characters.

Owner Name in SQL Identifiers

ANSI

The ANSI term for an owner name is a schema name.

The ability to put non-ASCII characters in the owner-name portion of an identifier depends on whether your operating system supports multibyte characters in user names.

UNIX

If your database server is on a computer with the UNIX operating system, the owner-name qualifier defaults to the UNIX login ID. However, most versions of UNIX do not support multibyte characters in the UNIX login IDs.

You can use multibyte characters in owner names if you explicitly specify an owner name (in single quotes) when you create database objects. For example, you can assign an owner name that contains multibyte characters when you put the owner-name portion of the index name in quotes in a CREATE INDEX statement.

Warning: If you specify multibyte characters in an owner name on a UNIX system, you do so at your own risk. If a UNIX login ID is used to match the owner name, the match might fail.

The following example shows a CREATE INDEX statement that specifies a multibyte owner name. In this example, the owner name consists of three 2-byte characters:

CREATE INDEX 'A1A2B1B2C1C2'.myidx ON mytable (mycol)

Valid Characters in Identifier Names

In a nondefault locale, the alpha class of the locale also lists the ASCII characters in the ranges a to z and A to Z. It might also include non-ASCII characters such as non-ASCII digits or ideographic characters. For example, the alpha class of the Japanese UJIS code set (in the Japanese UJIS locale) contains Kanji characters. When Informix products use a nondefault locale, SQL identifiers can use ASCII characters wherever letter is valid in the syntax of an SQL identifier. A non-ASCII character is also valid for letter as long as this character is listed in the alpha class of the locale.

The SQL statements in the following example use non-ASCII characters as letters in SQL identifiers:

CREATE DATABASE marché;



CREATE TABLE équipement

	(

	code NCHAR(6),

	description NVARCHAR(128,10),

	prix_courant MONEY(6,2)

	 );



CREATE VIEW çà_va AS

	SELECT numéro,nom FROM abonnés;

• The CREATE DATABASE statement uses the identifier marché, which includes the 8-bit character é, to name the database.
• The CREATE TABLE statement uses the identifier équipement, which includes the 8-bit character é, to name the table, and the identifiers code, description, and prix_courant to name the columns.
• The CREATE VIEW statement uses the identifier çà_va, which includes the 8-bit characters ç and à, to name the view.
• The SELECT clause within the CREATE VIEW statement uses the identifiers numéro and nom for the columns in the select list and the identifier abonnés for the table in the FROM clause. Both numéro and abonnés include the 8-bit character é.

For the complete syntax and usage of identifiers in SQL statements, see the Identifier segment in the Informix Guide to SQL: Syntax.

Non-ASCII Characters in Delimited Identifiers

When you use a nondefault locale, you can specify non-ASCII characters 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, Figure 3-1 shows that you can put non-ASCII characters in an undelimited index name. Thus you can put non-ASCII characters in an index name that you have enclosed in double quotes to make it a delimited identifier, as follows:

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

Multibyte Characters and Identifier Length

Tip: The name of an SE database is limited to 10 bytes. For more information, see "Naming a Database".

For example, the following CREATE SYNONYM statement creates a synonym name of 8 multibyte characters:

CREATE SYNONYM A1A2A3B1B2C1C2C3D1D2E1E2F1F2G1G2H1H2 FOR A1A2B1B2

CREATE SYNOMYM A1A2A3B1B2B3C1C2C3D1D2D3E1E2F1F2G1G2H1H2 FOR A1A2B1B2