Naming Standards for MindsDB Objects - Mindsdb

MindsDB allows you to create and manage a variety of entities within its ecosystem. All MindsDB objects follow the same naming conventions to ensure consistency and compatibility across the platform.

MindsDB Entities

The following entities can be created in MindsDB:

Databases → CREATE DATABASE
Knowledge Bases (KBs) → CREATE KNOWLEDGE_BASE
Tables → CREATE TABLE
Views → CREATE VIEW
Projects → CREATE PROJECT
Jobs → CREATE JOB
Triggers → CREATE TRIGGER
Agents → CREATE AGENT

General Naming Rules

When creating these entities, the following conventions apply:

Case-insensitive names

Object names are not sensitive to letter casing. For example:

sql

CREATE VIEW my_view (...);   -- creates "my_view"
CREATE VIEW My_View (...);   -- also creates "my_view"
CREATE VIEW MY_VIEW (...);   -- also creates "my_view"

All names are automatically converted to lowercase.

Allowed characters

Lowercase letters (a–z) Numbers (0–9) Underscores (_)

Example:
sql
```
CREATE AGENT my_agent345 (...);   -- creates "my_agent345"
```
Special characters

If you need special characters or spaces in object names, enclose them in backticks.
sql
```
CREATE VIEW `my view` (...);   -- creates “my view”
CREATE VIEW `my-view!` (...);  -- creates “my-view!”
```
However, names inside backticks must be lowercase. Using uppercase letters will result in an error because all object names must be in lowercase letters.
sql
```
CREATE VIEW `My View` (...);   -- error
```

<Warning> When working with entities from a data source connected to MindsDB, their original names are preserved and are not subject to MindsDB naming rules.

For example, if you connect a Snowflake data source that contains a table named ANALYTICS_101 with a column named Date_Time, you must reference them exactly as they appear in the source, utilizing backticks, as shown below:

sql

SELECT `Date_Time`
FROM snowflake_data.`ANALYTICS_101`;

</Warning>

Backward Compatibility

Older objects created with uppercase letters are still supported for backward compatibility. To reference them, wrap the name in backticks.

sql

SELECT * FROM `MyView`;   -- selects from “MyView”
DROP VIEW `MyView`;   -- deletes “MyView”

You cannot create new objects with uppercase letters. For example:

sql

CREATE VIEW `MyView` (...);   -- error

Examples

Here are some practical examples:

Databases

Note that when enclosing the object name in backticks, it preserves the case-sensitivity and special characters included in the name. Otherwise, the upper-case letters are automatically converted to lower-case letters.

See the usage examples below.

sql

CREATE DATABASE my_database WITH …;    -- creates my_database
SELECT * FROM my_database.table_name;  -- selects from my_database
DROP DATABASE my_database;             -- drops my_database

CREATE DATABASE MY_DATABASE WITH …;    -- creates my_database (note that upper-case letters are converted to lower-case letters)
SELECT * FROM my_database.table_name;  -- selects from my_database
SELECT * FROM MY_DATABASE.table_name;  -- selects from my_database
DROP DATABASE MY_DATABASE;             -- drops my_database

CREATE DATABASE `My-database` WITH …;    -- creates My-database (note that the name must be enclosed in backticks because it contains a special character)
SELECT * FROM `My-database`.table_name;  -- selects from My-database
DROP DATABASE `My-database`;             -- drops My-database

sql

-- this works
CREATE DATABASE demodata WITH …;
SELECT * FROM demodata.table_name;
SELECT * FROM `demodata`.table_name;
DROP DATABASE demodata;

-- this works and converts all letters to lower-case
CREATE DATABASE demoData WITH …;
SELECT * FROM demoData ...
DROP DATABASE demoData;

-- this works and keeps upper/lower-case letters because the name is enclosed in backticks
CREATE DATABASE `DemoData` WITH …;
SELECT * FROM `DemoData` ...
DROP DATABASE `DemoData` ...

sql

CREATE DATABASE DemoData WITH …;     -- creates demodata
CREATE DATABASE `DemoData` WITH …;   -- cannot create DemoData because demodata already exists
DROP DATABASE `DemoData`;            -- cannot drop DemoData because DemoData does not exist
DROP DATABASE DemoData;              -- drops demodata

CREATE DATABASE `DemoData` WITH …;     -- creates DemoData
CREATE DATABASE demodata WITH …;       -- cannot create demodata because DemoData already exists
DROP DATABASE demodata;                -- cannot drop demodata because demodata does not exist
DROP DATABASE `DemoData`;              -- drops demodata

sql

CREATE DATABASE demodata WITH …;   -- creates demodata
SELECT * FROM DEMODATA.table_name; -- selects from demodata, because DEMODATA is converted to demodata
DROP DATABASE demodata;            -- drops demodata

CREATE DATABASE `DemoData` WITH …;    -- creates DemoData
SELECT * FROM demodata.table_name;    -- cannot select from demodata
SELECT * FROM `DemoData`.table_name;  -- selects from DemoData
DROP DATABASE demodata;               -- cannot drop demodata because demodata does not exist
DROP DATABASE `DemoData`;             -- drops DemoData

CREATE DATABASE `Dèmo data 2` WITH …;
SELECT * FROM `Dèmo data 2`.table_name;
DROP DATABASE `Dèmo data 2`;

Views

sql

CREATE VIEW my_view (...);   -- creates "my_view"
CREATE VIEW My_View (...);   -- also creates "my_view"
CREATE VIEW `my view` (...);   -- creates "my view"
CREATE VIEW `My_View` (...);   -- error

If an older object named My_View exists, you can still use it:

sql

SELECT * FROM `My_View`;   -- selects from “My_View”
DROP VIEW `My_View`;   -- deletes “My_View”

Agents

sql

CREATE AGENT my_agent USING ...;   -- creates "my_agent"
CREATE AGENT My_Agent USING ...;   -- also creates "my_agent"
CREATE AGENT `my agent 1` USING ...;   -- creates "my agent 1"
CREATE AGENT `My agent 1` USING ...;   -- error

If an older object named My agent 1 exists, you can still use it:

sql

SELECT * FROM `My agent 1`;   -- selects from “My agent 1”
DROP AGENT `My agent 1`;   -- deletes “My agent 1”