vitessio/vitess · error

UnescapeID err: no outer backticks found in the identifier '

Error message

UnescapeID err: no outer backticks found in the identifier '%s'

What it means

Returned by sqlescape.UnescapeID when the identifier is not fully wrapped in outer backticks, so there are no delimiters to strip.

Source

Thrown at go/sqlescape/ids.go:82

	if l == 1 {
		if in[0] == '`' {
			return "", errors.New("UnescapeID err: invalid input identifier '`'")
		}
		return in, nil
	}

	first, last := in[0], in[l-1]

	if first == '`' && last != '`' {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("UnescapeID err: unexpected single backtick at position %d in '%s'", 0, in)
	}
	if first != '`' && last == '`' {
		return "", fmt.Errorf("UnescapeID err: unexpected single backtick at position %d in '%s'", l, in)
	}
	if first != '`' && last != '`' {
		if idx := strings.IndexByte(in, '`'); idx != -1 {
			return "", fmt.Errorf("UnescapeID err: no outer backticks found in the identifier '%s'", in)
		}
		return in, nil
	}

	in = in[1 : l-1]

	if found := strings.Contains(in, "`"); !found {
		return in, nil
	}

	var buf strings.Builder
	buf.Grow(len(in))

	for i := 0; i < len(in); i++ {
		buf.WriteByte(in[i])

		if i < len(in)-1 && in[i] == '`' {
			if in[i+1] == '`' {

View on GitHub (pinned to 01a25a7d17)

Solutions

1. Always wrap with EscapeID before expecting UnescapeID to work
2. If the string is already unescaped, skip UnescapeID (or check for outer backticks first)
3. Fix the code path that strips outer backticks but leaves escaped inner ones

Example fix

// before
name, _ := sqlescape.UnescapeID(alreadyEscapedInner)
// after
name := sqlescape.EscapeID(rawName) // escape fresh from the raw name

func needsUnescape(in string) bool {
	return len(in) >= 2 && in[0] == '`' && in[len(in)-1] == '`'
}

func isPlainOrQuotedID(in string) bool {
	if !strings.Contains(in, "`") { return true }
	return len(in) >= 2 && in[0] == '`' && in[len(in)-1] == '`'
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling UnescapeID on strings like "ta`ble" — inner backtick, no outer quoting.

Common situations: Partially escaped strings (only inner content escaped), round-tripping through systems that stripped the outer backticks, hand-built identifiers.

Related errors

• UnescapeID err: unexpected single backtick at position %d in
• UnescapeID err: invalid input identifier '%s'
• unknown SQL type %q at %s
• --batch-size only allowed when all queries are CREATE TABLE|
• missing value for 'rate'

AI-assisted analysis of vitessio/vitess@01a25a7d17 (2026-09-01). Data as JSON: /api/errors/9b9a9acc87066482. Report an issue: GitHub.