MySQL Aliases

Previous Next

MySQL Aliases

Aliases are used to give a table, or a column in a table, a temporary name.

Aliases are often used to make column names more readable.

An alias only exists for the duration of that query.

An alias is created with the AS keyword.

Alias Column Syntax

SELECT column_name AS alias_name
FROM table_name;

Alias Table Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name AS alias_name;

Practice Excercise Practice now

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

Practice Excercise Practice now

Alias For Columns Examples

The following SQL statement creates two aliases, one for the CustomerID column and one for the CustomerName column:

SELECT CustomerID AS ID, CustomerName AS Customer
FROM Customers;

The following SQL statement creates two aliases, one for the CustomerName column and one for the ContactName column. Note: Single or double quotation marks are required if the alias name contains spaces:

SELECT CustomerName AS Customer, ContactName AS "Contact Person"
FROM Customers;

The following SQL statement creates an alias named "Address" that combine four columns (Address, PostalCode, City and Country):

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

Practice Excercise Practice now

Alias For Tables Example

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 use aliases to make the SQL shorter):

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;

The following SQL statement is the same as above, but without aliases:

SELECT Orders.OrderID, Orders.OrderDate, Customers.CustomerName
FROM Customers, Orders
WHERE Customers.CustomerName='Around the Horn' AND Customers.CustomerID=Orders.CustomerID;

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

Practice Excercise Practice now

Previous Next

MySQL Aliases

MySQL Aliases

Demo Database

Alias For Columns Examples

Alias For Tables Example

COMPANY

Products

OTHERS

Partner