The SQL parser silently ignored characters such as '^' or '\'. Now a syntax error is thrown.

h2/src/main/org/h2/command/Parser.java

@@ -3227,7 +3227,9 @@ public class Parser {
                 } else if (c >= '0' && c <= '9') {
                     type = CHAR_VALUE;
                 } else {
-                    if (Character.isJavaIdentifierPart(c)) {
+                    if (c <= ' ' || Character.isWhitespace(c)) {
+                        // whitespace
+                    } else if (Character.isJavaIdentifierPart(c)) {
                         type = CHAR_NAME;
                         if (identifiersToUpper) {
                             char u = Character.toUpperCase(c);
@@ -3236,6 +3238,8 @@ public class Parser {
                                 changed = true;
                             }
                         }
+                    } else {
+                        type = CHAR_SPECIAL_1;
                     }
                 }
             }

h2/src/test/org/h2/test/test-1.3.txt

 --- special grammar and test cases ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+select 2^2;
+> exception
+
 select * from dual where x in (select x from dual group by x order by max(x));
 > X
 > -