# select from custom names columns **URL:** \ **Category:** Community Support\ **Tags:** kdb-and-q\ **Created:** [May 11, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://forum.kx.com/t/select-from-custom-names-columns/9812 "2015-05-11T16:02:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sieber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90db22/32.png) [@sieber](https://forum.kx.com/u/sieber)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://forum.kx.com/t/select-from-custom-names-columns/9812/1 "2015-05-11T16:02:00Z")
Hi, i have a table with column names that contain function parameters (so the names contain special characters : and .) q)table:flip(`a,`$“b:1.4”)!(1 2 3;4 5 6) how can I now select these columns? of course “select b:1.4 from table” does not work as intended, so i thought i should use the functional form: q)?[`table;();0b;(enlist`col)!enlist`$“b:1.4”] but this one also doesn’t work. Are special characters in column names simply not supported or are there any other methods of using them?  Markus ---
**Author:** ![charlie1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@charlie1](https://forum.kx.com/u/charlie1)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2015, 4:12pm UTC](https://forum.kx.com/t/select-from-custom-names-columns/9812/2 "2015-05-11T16:12:00Z")
For sanity, you should remove those chars at the earliest opportunity. e.g. ## q).Q.id table a b14 1 4  2 5  3 6  ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Martin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a4c791/32.png) [@Tom\_Martin](https://forum.kx.com/u/Tom_Martin)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2015, 4:37pm UTC](https://forum.kx.com/t/select-from-custom-names-columns/9812/3 "2015-05-11T16:37:00Z")
The specific problem here is the “.” character which is used to refererence columns in other tables via a foreign key or linked columns. [http://www.firstderivatives.com/lecture\_series\_pp.asp?downloadflyer=q\_for\_Gods\_June\_2013](http://www.firstderivatives.com/lecture%5C_series%5C_pp.asp?downloadflyer=q%5C_for%5C_Gods%5C_June%5C_2013) [http://code.kx.com/wiki/Cookbook/LinkingColumns](http://code.kx.com/wiki/Cookbook/LinkingColumns)