def normalize_column_name(name):
    """Check if a string is a reasonable thing to use as a column name."""
    if not isinstance(name, str):
        raise ValueError('%r is not a valid column name.' % name)
    name = name.strip()[:63]
    if isinstance(name, str):
        while len(name.encode('utf-8')) >= 64:
            name = name[:len(name) - 1]
    if not len(name) or '.' in name or '-' in name:
        raise ValueError('%r is not a valid column name.' % name)
    return name
