SAS/ACCESS Interface for Informix

Naming Conventions for Informix

For general information about this feature, see SAS Names and Support for DBMS Names.

The PRESERVE_COL_NAMES= and PRESERVE_TAB_NAMES= LIBNAME options determine how SAS/ACCESS Interface to Informix handles case sensitivity, spaces, and special characters. For information about these options, see Overview of the LIBNAME Statement for Relational Databases.

Informix objects include tables and columns. They follow these naming conventions.

Although table and column names must be from 1 to 32 characters, the limitation on some Informix servers might be lower.
Table and column names must begin with a letter or an underscore (_) that is followed by letters, numbers, or underscores. Special characters are not supported. However, if you enclose a name in quotation marks and PRESERVE_TAB_NAMES=YES (when applicable), it can begin with any character.

Because several problems were found in the Informix ODBC driver that result from using uppercase or mixed case, Informix encourages users to use lowercase for table and column names. Informix currently has no schedule for fixing these known problems.

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