I found https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/SPARK-20964
but currently it seems like strictIdentifiers are allowed to contain any reserved key words https://github.com/apache/spark/blob/master/sql/catalyst/src/main/antlr4/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/parser/SqlBase.g4#L501-L503 https://github.com/apache/spark/blob/master/sql/catalyst/src/main/antlr4/org/apache/spark/sql/catalyst/parser/SqlBase.g4#L703-L707 For example both of these things are valid scala> spark.sql("SELECT MAX(id) FROM FUN GROUP BY id").show scala> spark.sql("SELECT MAX(id) FROM FUN WHERE GROUP BY id").show == Parsed Logical Plan == 'Aggregate ['id], [unresolvedalias('MAX('id), None)] +- 'SubqueryAlias WHERE +- 'UnresolvedRelation `FUN` Because the second reference allows "WHERE" as an identifier for the Table Identifier. This could allow some unintended SQL. I think it might make sense to allow for reserved key words but only if they are actually escaped. I think that strictIdentifier should not allow reserved words but I perhaps am missing some history on this.
