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Brendan Clement
486f6c66bb
This PR is part of the documentation revamp. Once the full set of PRs is merged, we’ll publish the combined site to staging for review before updating docs.lancedb.com. The introductory pages are inconsistent, and the old PR split asked reviewers to review some pages twice. This brings the final quickstart, connection guide, architecture and Concepts pages together. It clarifies OSS and Enterprise, simplifies naming rules and includes the navigation and diagram fixes from #4489. Function and Secret details on the Concepts pages are MDX comments until their release, and CONTRIBUTING.md explains how to write docs before a release. Includes #4532. Ingestion, search and integrations are in #4533; data workflows, SQL and operations are in #4534. Each MDX file has one PR owner. Local assembly, Mint validation and link checks pass. The Function pages stay published from `main` until #4534 hides them, so hold publication until the complete stack is integrated.
70 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
70 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
---
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title: "Naming rules"
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sidebarTitle: "Naming Rules"
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description: "Choose portable names for your data objects and namespace paths."
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icon: signature
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keywords: ["names", "naming", "table name", "namespace", "identifier", "limits"]
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---
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## Naming rules {#rules}
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<span id="objects" />
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Databases, namespaces, tables, views and branches all have names. Choose names
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that describe their purpose, such as `documents`, `prod` or `training_2026`.
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Consistent names make data easier to find and application code easier to read.
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Use the following rules for names that work across LanceDB OSS and Enterprise.
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| Object | Characters | Length |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| Table, materialized view, view | ASCII letters and digits, `-`, `_`, `.` | 1 to 128 characters |
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| Namespace component | ASCII letters and digits, `-`, `_`, `.` | 1 to 64 characters; at most 10 components in a path |
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| Database | ASCII letters and digits, `-`, `_`, `.`, with `/` between components | 1 to 64 characters for the whole name |
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| Branch | Avoid `$` and `:`; use ASCII letters, digits, `-` and `_` for portability | Keep to 1 to 64 characters |
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- Names and individual namespace or database components must not be empty.
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- Table, view, namespace and database components cannot be `.` or `..`.
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- Avoid `$` and `:` because they separate parts of qualified identifiers.
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- A namespace path beginning with `public` cannot contain another component.
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{/*
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Draft for the Functions release. Add these rows to the end of the table above:
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| Secret | ASCII letters and digits, `-`, `_`, `.` | 1 to 128 characters |
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| Function | ASCII letters and digits, `_` | 1 to 128 characters |
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Add this item to the list above, after the rule for `.` and `..`:
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- Secret names cannot be `.` or `..`.
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*/}
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## Namespace paths {#paths}
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A namespace path is a list of names. `["prod", "search"]` identifies the
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`search` namespace within `prod`. A table named `documents` belongs to that
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namespace; its table name remains `documents`.
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Use the SDK's namespace-path argument to supply the list. A period inside an
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SDK name is a character in that name, not a separator that creates another
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namespace. SQL uses its own qualified-name syntax; see
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[SQL namespace paths](/sql/dql/select#namespaces).
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The empty path `[]` identifies the root namespace.
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## Examples {#examples}
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| Name or path | Guidance |
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| --- | --- |
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| `documents`, `user-events.v2`, `train_2026` | Portable table names |
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| `["prod", "search"]` | A two-component namespace path |
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| `my table` | Use `my_table` instead of a space |
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| `orders$2026` | Use `orders_2026`; `$` is reserved |
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| `résumés` | Use an ASCII name such as `resumes` |
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| `["public", "search"]` | Invalid nesting under `public`; use a different parent namespace |
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<span id="which-versions-check-them" />
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## Learn more {#next}
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- [Namespaces](/management/namespace): create namespaces and address tables.
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- [Branches](/tables/branching): name and manage separate lines of table history.
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- [Limits](/basics/limits): check other constraints before designing your schema.
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