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MySQL Aliases

In MySQL, an alias is a temporary name for a table or column. It is often used to make the output more readable or to simplify queries.

Aliases are created using the AS keyword (though AS is optional in MySQL).

They only exist for the duration of the query and do not affect the actual table or column names.

SELECT column_name AS alias_name
FROM table_name;

You can also write it without AS:

SELECT column_name alias_name
FROM table_name;

Demo Database

Below is a selection from the "Students" table in the school_db database:

student_id	name	gender	city	age	score	course_id	email	phone_number
1	Alice	Female	Delhi	20	85	101	NULL	1234567890
2	Bob	Male	Mumbai	22	75	NULL	bob@email.com	NULL
3	Charlie	Male	Delhi	21	95	102	NULL	NULL
4	David	Male	Bangalore	23	65	101	david@email.com	NULL
5	Eve	Female	Mumbai	20	80	103	NULL	NULL
6	Frank	Male	Delhi	22	90	103	NULL	NULL
7	Alice	Female	Mumbai	19	60	102	NULL	NULL

The following SQL statement creates two aliases, one for the student_id column and one for the name column:

Example

SELECT student_id AS ID, name AS StudentName

FROM students;

Try it yourself

Single quote marks are required if the alias name contains spaces:

Example

SELECT student_id AS ID, name AS 'Student Name'

FROM students;

Try it yourself

We use the "Students" and "Course" tables, and give them the table aliases of "s" and "c" respectively (Here we use aliases to make the SQL shorter):

Example

SELECT s.name, s.age, c.course_name

FROM students AS s

JOIN courses AS c

ON s.course_id = c.course_id;

Try it yourself

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

Example

SELECT students.name, students.age, courses.course_name

FROM students

JOIN courses

ON students.course_id = courses.course_id;

Try it yourself