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SQL Aliases


SQL aliases are used to temporarily rename a table or a column heading.


SQL Aliases

SQL aliases are used to give a database table, or a column in a table, a temporary name.

Basically aliases are created to make column names more readable.

SQL Alias Syntax for Columns

SELECT column_name AS alias_name
FROM table_name;

SQL Alias Syntax for Tables

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name AS alias_name;

Demo Database

In this tutorial we will use the well-known Northwind sample database.

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table:

CustomerID CustomerName ContactName Address City PostalCode Country
2 Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados Ana Trujillo Avda. de la Constitución 2222 México D.F. 05021 Mexico
3 Antonio Moreno Taquería Antonio Moreno Mataderos 2312 México D.F. 05023 Mexico
4 Around the Horn Thomas Hardy 120 Hanover Sq. London WA1 1DP UK

And a selection from the "Orders" table:

OrderID CustomerID EmployeeID OrderDate ShipperID
10354 58 8 1996-11-14 3
10355 4 6 1996-11-15 1
10356 86 6 1996-11-18 2

Alias Example for Table Columns

The following SQL statement specifies two aliases, one for the CustomerName column and one for the ContactName column. Tip: It requires double quotation marks or square brackets if the column name contains spaces:

Example

SELECT CustomerName AS Customer, ContactName AS [Contact Person]
FROM Customers;
Try it yourself »

In the following SQL statement we combine four columns (Address, City, PostalCode, and Country) and create an alias named "Address":

Example

SELECT CustomerName, Address+', '+City+', '+PostalCode+', '+Country AS Address
FROM Customers;
Try it yourself »

Note: To get the SQL statement above to work in MySQL use the following:

SELECT CustomerName, CONCAT(Address,', ',City,', ',PostalCode,', ',Country) AS Address
FROM Customers;

Alias Example for Tables

The following SQL statement selects all the orders from the customer with CustomerID=4 (Around the Horn). We use the "Customers" and "Orders" tables, and give them the table aliases of "c" and "o" respectively (Here we have used aliases to make the SQL shorter):

Example

SELECT o.OrderID, o.OrderDate, c.CustomerName
FROM Customers AS c, Orders AS o
WHERE c.CustomerName="Around the Horn" AND c.CustomerID=o.CustomerID;
Try it yourself »

The same SQL statement without aliases:

Example

SELECT Orders.OrderID, Orders.OrderDate, Customers.CustomerName
FROM Customers, Orders
WHERE Customers.CustomerName="Around the Horn" AND Customers.CustomerID=Orders.CustomerID;
Try it yourself »

Aliases can be useful when:

  • There are more than one table involved in a query
  • Functions are used in the query
  • Column names are big or not very readable
  • Two or more columns are combined together