OracleBlog

In Oracle, you can't start a table, procedure or variable name with a number.

SQL> CREATE TABLE 123Table (aval NUMBER);
CREATE TABLE 123Table (aval NUMBER)
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00903: invalid table name

You can get around this simply using quotes.

SQL> CREATE TABLE "123Table" (aval NUMBER);

Table created.

This will take the name very literally. So literally, in fact, that you can no longer rely on Oracle's typical case-insensitivity.

SQL> drop table "123TABLE";
drop table "123TABLE"
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00942: table or view does not exist

You can also use quotes to use reserved words.

SQL> CREATE TABLE "TABLE" ("NUMBER" NUMBER);

Table created.