picoSQL - Language reference manual

1) Syntax conventions

The following conventions are used in the SQL syntax description.

• All keywords are shown in upper case, while items that the user must replace with identifiers or expressions are shown in lower case. This is only a convention to better distinguish different parts of a command. picoSQL do not distinguish between upper and lower case, as much in the keywords as in the user's identifiers, so the command "SELECT MYTAB ..." is equals to "Select Mytab ..." and to "select mytab ...".

• Optional portions of a command are enclosed by square brackets [].

• Alternative options are separated by vertical bars.

• Curly braces enclose alternative options, separated by a vertical bar, between which only one must be chosen. Warning! Curly braces are also part of the language; they are used as escape sequences and in this case they must be written as they appear. In the continuation, the use of curly braces as escape sequences is evidenced to avoid ambiguities.

• Lists are shown with a list element followed by ", ...". This means that one or more list elements are allowed and if more than one is specified, the must be separated by commas.

• All the other characters, as parenthesis for example, are SQL syntax elements and must be written as they appear.