SQL Alias
SQL Aliases are defined for columns and tables. Basically aliases is created to make the column selected more readable.
For Example: To select the first name of all the students, the query would be like:
Aliases for columns:
SELECT first_name AS Name FROM student_details;
or
SELECT first_name Name FROM student_details;
In the above query, the column first_name is given a alias as 'name'. So when the result is displayed the column name appears as 'Name' instead of 'first_name'.
Output:
Name
-------------
Rahul Sharma
Anjali Bhagwat
Stephen Fleming
Shekar Gowda
Priya Chandra
Aliases for tables:
SELECT s.first_name FROM student_details s;
In the above query, alias 's' is defined for the table student_details and the column first_name is selected from the table.
Aliases is more useful when
- There are more than one tables involved in a query,
- Functions are used in the query,
- The column names are big or not readable,
- More than one columns are combined together
