Revision history [back]

There are different methods for placing parentheses in column names when creating a table using an SQL query, depending on the database management system and the SQL dialect used.

In general, parentheses are used to specify the data type and length of a column, or to indicate that the column is a computed or derived column. For example, in Microsoft SQL Server, the syntax for creating a table with a column named "id" that is an integer and "name" that is a string of maximum length 50 would be:

CREATE TABLE my_table (
  id int,
  name varchar(50)
);

If you want to add parentheses to the column names themselves, you can enclose the name in backticks, single or double quotes, or square brackets, depending on the database and syntax used. For example, in MySQL and MariaDB, you can use backticks to enclose column names with spaces, special characters, or reserved keywords:

CREATE TABLE my_table (
  `id` int,
  `full name` varchar(50),
  `timestamp` datetime
);

In SQL Server and PostgreSQL, you can use square brackets to enclose column names with spaces or special characters:

CREATE TABLE my_table (
  [id] int,
  [full name] varchar(50),
  [timestamp] datetime
);

It's generally recommended to avoid using special characters or reserved keywords in column names, and to use a consistent naming convention that is easy to read and understand.