Attribute Names

    • Attribute names starting with an underscore are considered to be system attributes for ArangoDB’s internal use. Such attribute names are already used by ArangoDB for special purposes:

      • _id is used to contain a document’s handle
      • _key is used to contain a document’s user-defined key
        • _from
        • _to

        attributes are used to reference other documents.

    • Attribute names starting with an at-mark (@) will need to be enclosed in backticks when used in an AQL query to tell them apart from bind variables. Therefore we do not encourage the use of attributes starting with at-marks, though they will work when used properly.
    • ArangoDB does not enforce a length limit for attribute names. However, long attribute names may use more memory in result sets etc. Therefore the use of long attribute names is discouraged.
    • Attribute names are case-sensitive.