what's the escape sequence for hyphen (-) in PostgreSQL

Question

Hi, I'm trying to rename a database to a name with a hyphen (-).

ALTER DATABASE one RENAME TO one-two;

And psql returns an error:

ERROR:  syntax error at or near "-"

What should I use as an escape sequence for "-" character or what's the way to do the above?

Note: I've tried the '\-' and didn't work as well.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Don't do that. If psql does not like hyphens in the database name, then don't do that.

Answer 2

Double quotes should do it. But you'll have to always use the quoted-identifier everywhere you reference the database.

ALTER DATABASE one RENAME TO "one-two";