Reserved Keywords Transact SQL

Example scripts and tips (replaces Old Scripts & Tips archive)

Moderators: Dorian (MJT support), JRL, Phil Pendlebury

Post Reply
User avatar
JRL
Automation Wizard
Posts: 3497
Joined: Mon Jan 10, 2005 6:22 pm
Location: Iowa

Reserved Keywords Transact SQL

Post by JRL » Mon Jul 24, 2017 9:07 pm

I just spent a couple of hours trying to figure out why my Update SQL was failing. The only error I received said:

Error in : update attempt
Line: 14 - Syntax error in UPDATE statement

Excruciatingly vague.

After making many web searches and trying many combinations of quotes and apostrophes I finally discovered that two of the table names in the Excel file I was updating were reserved words. "Left" and "Top" can't be accessed in an update SQL. Here's a Microsoft web page with all reserved words.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t- ... ansact-sql


Odd thing is there is no failure using those same column names when I do a query of the same Excel file.

AND... Yes, I know I could save myself the headache if I simply used the Macro Scheduler Excel functions. Problem is I vacillate between capturing data from Excel and data from our Pervasive database so writing scripts using only ODBC makes things consistent. I have written update scripts before, apparently got lucky enough not to stumble over the reserved words prior to today.

Post Reply
cron
Sign up to our newsletter for free automation tips, tricks & discounts