Column Naming & Conventions

Consistent, clear naming makes databases easier to understand, maintain, and scale — especially when working in a team.

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to name tables and columns effectively.

Follow these best practices to ensure clarity and consistency when naming columns and tables in SQL.

Choose one convention and apply it to all columns and tables in your database.

Snake case uses lowercase letters with underscores to separate words.
It is widely used because it is easy to read, type, and keep consistent.

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CREATE TABLE clients_info (
  id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  name TEXT,
  contact_number TEXT,
  created_at DATE
);

PascalCase capitalizes the first letter of each word. It’s sometimes used in programming languages, but less common in SQL.

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CREATE TABLE ClientsInfo (
  Id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  Name TEXT,
  ContactNumber TEXT,
  CreatedAt DATE
);

Tip: snake_case is the most popular convention in SQL because it improves readability and avoids case sensitivity issues in many database systems.

Avoid using reserved words like SELECT, WHERE, or ORDER as column or table names:

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-- Avoid this
CREATE TABLE order (...);

Use names that describe the data they contain.

For example, client_id is better than id because it is more descriptive.

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CREATE TABLE clients (
  client_id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  name TEXT,
  contact_number TEXT,
  created_at DATE
);

The example below shows a well-named table.

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CREATE TABLE client_orders (
  order_id INT PRIMARY KEY,
  client_id INT,
  order_total REAL,
  placed_at DATE
);

Good naming makes it easier to understand queries at a glance, avoid errors and confusion, and keep the database consistent over time.