- With SQL, an alias name can be given to a table or to a column.
- You can give a table or a column another name by using an alias. This can be a good thing to do if
- you have very long or complex table names or column names.
- An alias name could be anything, but usually it is short.
- SQL Alias Syntax for Tables:
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
AS alias_name
SQL Alias Syntax for Columns:
SELECT column_name AS alias_name
FROM table_name
Also read
Alias Example
Assume we have a table called “Persons” and another table called “Product_Orders”. We will give the table aliases of “p” and “po” respectively. Now we want to list all the orders that “Ola Hansen” is responsible for. We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT po.OrderID, p.LastName, p.FirstName
FROM Persons AS p, Product_Orders AS po
WHERE p.LastName='Hansen' AND p.FirstName='Ola'
The same SELECT statement without aliases:
SELECT Product_Orders.OrderID, Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName
FROM Persons, Product_Orders
WHERE Persons.LastName='Hansen' AND Persons.FirstName='Ola'
Notes: As you’ll see from the two SELECT statements above; aliases can make queries easier to both write and to read.