2. Fundamentals of Using Querying and Reporting Tools : Naming and Name Use Conventions : Conventions for Regular Identifiers
 
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Conventions for Regular Identifiers
The following table lists the conventions you must follow when using a regular identifier to specify the name for any object:

Quality

Convention
For ANSI/ISO Entry
SQL-92 Compliant Databases
Size
32 bytes maximum; 256 bytes maximum for many objects. For details, see Object Naming Rules in the SQL Reference Guide.
No more than 128 characters
First character
Must be alphabetic (a‑z) or the underscore (_)
Must be alphabetic (a‑z)
Other allowable characters
0‑9, #,@, and $ allowed after the first character
Only alphabetic, numeric, or underscore characters allowed
Case sensitivity
Case insensitive
Case insensitive
Examples of valid regular identifiers for object names are:
• new_york
• march98
• Quinn (equivalent to quinn or QUINN)
• _geneva$ (not allowed in databases that comply with ANSI/ISO Entry SQL92 standards)
In addition to the restrictions described above, you must not use reserved words as regular identifiers. For a full list of standard or embedded SQL, OpenSQL, and QUEL reserved words, see your query language reference guide or the Forms-based Application Development Tools User Guide.