## Password

Users require a password (password) to connect to the database instance (start a database session).

### Syntax

<password> ::= <identifier>
| <first_password_character>[<identifier_tail_character>...]

<first_password_character> ::= <digit>
| <letter>
| <extended_letter>
| <language_specific_character>

<digit> ::= 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

<letter> ::= A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J
| K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T
| U | V | W | X | Y | Z
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j
| k | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t
| u | v | w | x | y | z

<extended_letter> ::= # | @ | $

<identifier_tail_character> ::= <digit>
| <letter>
| <extended_letter>
| <language_specific_character>
| <underscore>

<underscore> ::= _

### Explanation

Passwords are truncated after 18 characters.

#### Language-Specific Characters

A language-specific character language_specific_character is any letter that occurs in a northern, southern, or central European language and is not contained in the list of letters.

German umlauts: ä, ö, ü

French letters with a “grave” accent: à

If you have installed a UNICODE-enabled database instance, a language-specific character is a character that is not included in the ASCII code list from 0 to 127.

See also:

CREATE USER Statement (create_user_statement)

ALTER PASSWORD Statement (alter_password_statement)

Concepts of the Database System, Conventions for User Names and Passwords