How to check for valid oracle table name using sql/plsql

Question

I need to check if a string contains a valid Oracle table name using sql/plsql. The criteria I found for a Oracle table name are these:

1. The table name must begin with a letter.
2. The table name can not be longer than 30 characters.
3. The table name must be made up of alphanumeric characters or the following special characters: $, _, and #.
4. The table name can not be a reserved word.

Criteria 1,2,3 don't seem so hard to tackle. But what about point 4? What are my options without trying to actually create a table with the given name and then see if it succeeds or fails.

Answer 1

I have a SQL_RESERVED_WORDS table that I check against.

EDIT:

(I lied... it was just a SYNONYMN for the table in carpenteri's post)

Answer 2

For SQL reserved words you can check v$reserved_words. Here the link from the documentation

Answer 3

It is a fairly large list to check. Can you simply add a default prefix to the tables and avoid these problems all together? user_xxx

Answer 4

Oracle has a built-in that's useful for checking whether a SQL Name is valid. That's especially useful when building dynamic queries where you need to prevent SQL Injection.

Check out the dbms_assert.simple_sql_name built-in, and see the Oracle white paper at How to Write Injection Proof PL/SQL for more details.

v$reserved_words is also useful, as others have noted.