Lexical structure and syntax

A GoogleSQL statement comprises a series of tokens. Tokens include identifiers, quoted identifiers, literals, keywords, operators, and special characters. You can separate tokens with comments or whitespace such as spaces, backspaces, tabs, or newlines.

Identifiers

Identifiers are names that are associated with columns, tables, fields, path expressions, and more. They can be unquoted or quoted and some are case-sensitive.

Unquoted identifiers

• Must begin with a letter or an underscore (_) character.
• Subsequent characters can be letters, numbers, or underscores (_).

Quoted identifiers

• Must be enclosed by backtick (`) characters.
• Can contain any characters, including spaces and symbols.
• Cannot be empty.
• Have the same escape sequences as string literals.
• If an identifier is the same as a reserved keyword, the identifier must be quoted. For example, the identifier FROM must be quoted. Additional rules apply for path expressions , table names, column names, and field names.

Identifier examples

Path expression examples:

-- Valid. _5abc and dataField are valid identifiers.
_5abc.dataField

-- Valid. `5abc` and dataField are valid identifiers.
`5abc`.dataField

-- Invalid. 5abc is an invalid identifier because it is unquoted and starts
-- with a number rather than a letter or underscore.
5abc.dataField

-- Valid. abc5 and dataField are valid identifiers.
abc5.dataField

-- Invalid. abc5! is an invalid identifier because it is unquoted and contains
-- a character that is not a letter, number, or underscore.
abc5!.dataField

-- Valid. `GROUP` and dataField are valid identifiers.
`GROUP`.dataField

-- Invalid. GROUP is an invalid identifier because it is unquoted and is a
-- stand-alone reserved keyword.
GROUP.dataField

-- Valid. abc5 and GROUP are valid identifiers.
abc5.GROUP

Function examples:

-- Valid. dataField is a valid identifier in a function called foo().
foo().dataField

Array access operation examples:

-- Valid. dataField is a valid identifier in an array called items.
items[OFFSET(3)].dataField

Named query parameter examples:

-- Valid. param and dataField are valid identifiers.
@param.dataField

Table name examples:

-- Valid table name.
mytable287

-- Invalid table name. The table name starts with a number and is
-- unquoted.
287mytable

-- Invalid table name. The table name is unquoted and is not a valid
-- dashed identifier, as the part after the dash is neither a number nor
-- an identifier starting with a letter or an underscore.
mytable-287a

Path expressions

A path expression describes how to navigate to an object in a graph of objects and generally follows this structure:

path:
  [path_expression][. ...]

path_expression:
  [first_part]/subsequent_part[ { / | : | - } subsequent_part ][...]

first_part:
  { unquoted_identifier | quoted_identifier }

subsequent_part:
  { unquoted_identifier | quoted_identifier | number }

• path: A graph of one or more objects.
• path_expression: An object in a graph of objects.
• first_part: A path expression can start with a quoted or unquoted identifier. If the path expressions starts with a reserved keyword, it must be a quoted identifier.
• subsequent_part: Subsequent parts of a path expression can include non-identifiers, such as reserved keywords. If a subsequent part of a path expressions starts with a reserved keyword, it may be quoted or unquoted.

Examples:

foo.bar
foo.bar/25
foo/bar:25
foo/bar/25-31
/foo/bar
/25/foo/bar

Table names

A table name represents the name of a table.

• Table names can be quoted identifiers or unquoted identifiers.
• A table name that is an unquoted identifier can additionally include single dashes if the table name is referenced in a FROM or TABLE clause. Only the first identifier in the table path (the project ID or the table name) can have dashes. Dashes are not supported in datasets.

• A table name can be a fully qualified table name (table path) that includes up to three quoted or unquoted identifiers:

  • An optional project ID

  • An optional dataset name

  • A required table name.

  For example: myproject.mydataset.mytable

• Table names can be path expressions.

• Table names have case-sensitivity rules.

• Table names have additional rules.

Examples:

mytable
`287mytable`

Column names

A column name represents the name of a column in a table.

• Column names can be quoted identifiers or unquoted identifiers.
• If unquoted, identifiers support dashed identifiers when referenced in a FROM or TABLE clause.

Examples:

columnA
column-a
`287column`

Field names

A field name represents the name of a field inside a complex data type such as a struct.

• A field name can be a quoted identifier or an unquoted identifier.
• Field names must adhere to all of the rules for column names.

Literals

A literal represents a constant value of a built-in data type. Some, but not all, data types can be expressed as literals.

String and bytes literals

A string literal represents a constant value of the string data type. A bytes literal represents a constant value of the bytes data type.

Both string and bytes literals must be quoted, either with single (') or double (") quotation marks, or triple-quoted with groups of three single (''') or three double (""") quotation marks.

Formats for quoted literals

The following table lists all of the ways you can format a quoted literal.

Escape sequences for string and bytes literals

The following table lists all valid escape sequences for representing non-alphanumeric characters in string and bytes literals. Any sequence not in this table produces an error.

Integer literals

Integer literals are either a sequence of decimal digits (0–9) or a hexadecimal value that is prefixed with "0x" or "0X". Integers can be prefixed by "+" or "-" to represent positive and negative values, respectively. Examples:

123
0xABC
-123

An integer literal is interpreted as an INT64.

A integer literal represents a constant value of the integer data type.

Floating point literals

Syntax options:

[+-]DIGITS.[DIGITS][e[+-]DIGITS]
[+-][DIGITS].DIGITS[e[+-]DIGITS]
DIGITSe[+-]DIGITS

DIGITS represents one or more decimal numbers (0 through 9) and e represents the exponent marker (e or E).

Examples:

123.456e-67
.1E4
58.
4e2

Numeric literals that contain either a decimal point or an exponent marker are presumed to be type double.

Implicit coercion of floating point literals to float type is possible if the value is within the valid float range.

There is no literal representation of NaN or infinity, but the following case-insensitive strings can be explicitly cast to float:

• "NaN"
• "inf" or "+inf"
• "-inf"

A floating-point literal represents a constant value of the floating-point data type.

Array literals

Array literals are comma-separated lists of elements enclosed in square brackets. The ARRAY keyword is optional, and an explicit element type T is also optional.

Examples:

[1, 2, 3]
['x', 'y', 'xy']
ARRAY[1, 2, 3]
ARRAY<string>['x', 'y', 'xy']
ARRAY<int64>[]

An array literal represents a constant value of the array data type.

Struct literals

A struct literal is a struct whose fields are all literals. Struct literals can be written using any of the syntaxes for constructing a struct (tuple syntax, typeless struct syntax, or typed struct syntax).

Note that tuple syntax requires at least two fields, in order to distinguish it from an ordinary parenthesized expression. To write a struct literal with a single field, use typeless struct syntax or typed struct syntax.

A struct literal represents a constant value of the struct data type.

Date literals

Syntax:

DATE 'date_canonical_format'

Date literals contain the DATE keyword followed by date_canonical_format, a string literal that conforms to the canonical date format, enclosed in single quotation marks. Date literals support a range between the years 1 and 9999, inclusive. Dates outside of this range are invalid.

For example, the following date literal represents September 27, 2014:

DATE '2014-09-27'

String literals in canonical date format also implicitly coerce to DATE type when used where a DATE-type expression is expected. For example, in the query

SELECT * FROM foo WHERE date_col = "2014-09-27"

the string literal "2014-09-27" will be coerced to a date literal.

A date literal represents a constant value of the date data type.

Timestamp literals

Syntax:

TIMESTAMP 'timestamp_canonical_format'

Timestamp literals contain the TIMESTAMP keyword and timestamp_canonical_format, a string literal that conforms to the canonical timestamp format, enclosed in single quotation marks.

Timestamp literals support a range between the years 1 and 9999, inclusive. Timestamps outside of this range are invalid.

A timestamp literal can include a numerical suffix to indicate the time zone:

TIMESTAMP '2014-09-27 12:30:00.45-08'

If this suffix is absent, the default time zone, UTC, is used.

For example, the following timestamp represents 12:30 p.m. on September 27, 2014 in the default time zone, UTC:

TIMESTAMP '2014-09-27 12:30:00.45'

For more information about time zones, see Time zone.

String literals with the canonical timestamp format, including those with time zone names, implicitly coerce to a timestamp literal when used where a timestamp expression is expected. For example, in the following query, the string literal "2014-09-27 12:30:00.45 America/Los_Angeles" is coerced to a timestamp literal.

SELECT * FROM foo
WHERE timestamp_col = "2014-09-27 12:30:00.45 America/Los_Angeles"

A timestamp literal can include these optional characters:

• T or t
• Z or z

If you use one of these characters, a space can't be included before or after it. These are valid:

TIMESTAMP '2017-01-18T12:34:56.123456Z'
TIMESTAMP '2017-01-18t12:34:56.123456'
TIMESTAMP '2017-01-18 12:34:56.123456z'
TIMESTAMP '2017-01-18 12:34:56.123456Z'

A timestamp literal represents a constant value of the timestamp data type.

Time zone

Since timestamp literals must be mapped to a specific point in time, a time zone is necessary to correctly interpret a literal. If a time zone is not specified as part of the literal itself, then GoogleSQL uses the default time zone value, which the GoogleSQL implementation sets.

GoogleSQL can represent a time zones using a string, which represents the offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Examples:

'-08:00'
'-8:15'
'+3:00'
'+07:30'
'-7'

Time zones can also be expressed using string time zone names.

Examples:

TIMESTAMP '2014-09-27 12:30:00 America/Los_Angeles'
TIMESTAMP '2014-09-27 12:30:00 America/Argentina/Buenos_Aires'

Enum literals

There is no syntax for enum literals. Integer or string literals are coerced to the enum type when necessary, or explicitly cast to a specific enum type name. For more information, see Literal coercion.

An enum literal represents a constant value of the enum data type.

Case sensitivity

GoogleSQL follows these rules for case sensitivity:

Reserved keywords

Keywords are a group of tokens that have special meaning in the GoogleSQL language, and have the following characteristics:

• Keywords cannot be used as identifiers unless enclosed by backtick (`) characters.
• Keywords are case-insensitive.

GoogleSQL has the following reserved keywords.

Terminating semicolons

You can optionally use a terminating semicolon (;) when you submit a query string statement through an Application Programming Interface (API).

In a request containing multiple statements, you must separate statements with semicolons, but the semicolon is generally optional after the final statement. Some interactive tools require statements to have a terminating semicolon.

Trailing commas

You can optionally use a trailing comma (,) at the end of a column list in a SELECT statement. You might have a trailing comma as the result of programmatically creating a column list.

Example

SELECT name, release_date, FROM Books

Query parameters

You can use query parameters to substitute arbitrary expressions. However, query parameters cannot be used to substitute identifiers, column names, table names, or other parts of the query itself. Query parameters are defined outside of the query statement.

Client APIs allow the binding of parameter names to values; the query engine substitutes a bound value for a parameter at execution time.

Query parameters cannot be used in the SQL body of these statements: CREATE FUNCTION, CREATE VIEW, CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW, and CREATE PROCEDURE.

Named query parameters

Syntax:

@parameter_name

A named query parameter is denoted using an identifier preceded by the @ character. Named query parameters cannot be used alongside positional query parameters.

A named query parameter can start with an identifier or a reserved keyword. An identifier can be unquoted or quoted.

Example:

This example returns all rows where LastName is equal to the value of the named query parameter myparam.

SELECT * FROM Roster WHERE LastName = @myparam

Positional query parameters

Positional query parameters are denoted using the ? character. Positional parameters are evaluated by the order in which they are passed in. Positional query parameters cannot be used alongside named query parameters.

Example:

This query returns all rows where LastName and FirstName are equal to the values passed into this query. The order in which these values are passed in matters. If the last name is passed in first, followed by the first name, the expected results will not be returned.

SELECT * FROM Roster WHERE FirstName = ? and LastName = ?

Comments

Comments are sequences of characters that the parser ignores. GoogleSQL supports the following types of comments.

Single-line comments

Use a single-line comment if you want the comment to appear on a line by itself.

Examples

# this is a single-line comment
SELECT book FROM library;

-- this is a single-line comment
SELECT book FROM library;

/* this is a single-line comment */
SELECT book FROM library;

SELECT book FROM library
/* this is a single-line comment */
WHERE book = "Ulysses";

Inline comments

Use an inline comment if you want the comment to appear on the same line as a statement. A comment that is prepended with # or -- must appear to the right of a statement.

Examples

SELECT book FROM library; # this is an inline comment

SELECT book FROM library; -- this is an inline comment

SELECT book FROM library; /* this is an inline comment */

SELECT book FROM library /* this is an inline comment */ WHERE book = "Ulysses";

Multiline comments

Use a multiline comment if you need the comment to span multiple lines. Nested multiline comments are not supported.

Examples

SELECT book FROM library
/*
  This is a multiline comment
  on multiple lines
*/
WHERE book = "Ulysses";

SELECT book FROM library
/* this is a multiline comment
on two lines */
WHERE book = "Ulysses";