This blog provides general policies, procedures and guidelines for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008 object design and query development. This document is currently in DRAFT and will continue to evolve. Most footnote references are currently SQL 2000 related. When these are updated the status of this document will be changed to FINAL. Global Standards Object Nomenclature All object names should reflect the nature and purpose of the object. Object names may be comprised of alphabetic, numeric and underscore (ASCII Code 95) characters only and are limited to 'sysname' allowable length (VARCHAR(30) for SQL6x, NVARCHAR(256) for SQL7, SQL2000 and SQL2005). No user-defined object is to begin with 'sys', 'sp_', ‘fn_’ or 'xp_' as these prefixes are indicative of system objects. MS SQL Server and ANSI SQL keywords, reserved words, abbreviations and synonyms are not allowed as object or identifier names (see: Reserved Words - Transact SQL ...