ORA-00904: invalid identifier

Running DDL or DML statements. Below example shows a sample DDL run over SQL Developer Web and SQL Developer.

CREATE TABLE sample_contract(
Year DATE,
Team VARCHAR2(12),
Conference VARCHAR2(10),
Division VARCHAR2(8),
City VARCHAR2(13),
Price NUMBER,
Size NUMBER,
Pct NUMBER)
/
Error report -
ORA-00904: : invalid identifier
00904. 00000 - "%s: invalid identifier"
*Cause:
*Action:

The script uses SIZE as a column name which is an Oracle SQL Reserved Word. Rename the “SIZE” column name to a different name and rerun the script. Reserved words as part of object name or column name has restrictions. If it is being used, should be used with double-quotes. For example:

CREATE TABLE sample_contract(
Year DATE,
Team VARCHAR2(12),
Conference VARCHAR2(10),
Division VARCHAR2(8),
City VARCHAR2(13),
Price NUMBER,
"Size" NUMBER,
Pct NUMBER)
/

Further, while selecting data from column which has name as one of the reserved word a double quote is needed. Apart from this the name of the column should be in exact case as it was used while creating table. In above case this is a valid SELECT statement.

Select "Size" from sample_contract;

Whereas following will fail:

Select "SIZE" from sample_contract;
Select "size" from sample_contract;
Select Size from sample_contract;

Other Reasons for ora-00904

ORA-00904: invalid identifier
Cause: The column name entered is either missing or invalid.
Action: Enter a valid column name. A valid column name must begin with a letter, be less than or equal to 30 characters, and consist of only alphanumeric characters and the special characters $, _, and #. If it contains other characters, then it must be enclosed in double quotation marks. It may not be a reserved word.

ORA-00904 is a very simple issue. ORA-00904 may occur when we try to create or alter a table with an invalid column name. It also may occur when we try to reference a non-existing column in a select/insert/update/delete statement.

Examples which may lead to ORA-00904 are following:

SQL> CREATE TABLE TEST
  2  (
  3     ID      NUMBER,
  4     NAME    VARCHAR2(200),
  5     COMMENT VARCHAR2(4000)
  6  );
        COMMENT VARCHAR2(4000)
        *
ERROR at line 5:
ORA-00904: invalid identifier

SQL> select empid from scott.emp;
select empid from scott.emp
       *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00904: "EMPID": invalid identifier

SQL> update scott.emp set salary=1000 where empno = 3625;
update scott.emp set salary=1000 where empno = 3625
                     *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00904: "SALARY": invalid identifier

SQL> delete scott.emp where empid = 3625;
delete scott.emp where empid = 3625
                       *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00904: "EMPID": invalid identifier

SQL> insert into scott.emp (empno, empname, sal) 
  2  values(3625, 'Amit', 10000);
insert into scott.emp (empno, empname, sal)
                              *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00904: "EMPNAME": invalid identifier

SQL> select emp.ename from scott.emp e;
select emp.ename from scott.emp e
       *
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00904: "EMP"."ENAME": invalid identifier

ORA-00904 can simply be avoided by using the valid column name in create or alter statement. Also, for DML statements ORA-00904 can be avoided by making a valid reference to the column name or the alias.

A valid column name must follow following criteria:

The column name must begin with a letter.
The column name can not be of more than 30 characters.
The column name must be made up of alphanumeric characters
The column name may contain following special characters: $, _, and #.
If the column name uses any other characters, it must be enclosed in double quotation marks.
The column name can not be a reserved word.

Other Reasons for ora-00904

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