When to use SQL Table Alias
- by Rossini
I curious to know how people are using table alias. The other developers where I work always use table alias, and always use the alias of a, b, c, ect.
Here's an example
SELECT a.TripNum, b.SegmentNum, b.StopNum, b.ArrivalTime
FROM Trip a, Segment b
WHERE a.TripNum = b.TripNum
I disagree with them, and think table alias should be use more sparingly. I think it should be used when including the same table twice in a query, or when the table name is very long and using a shorter name in the query will make the query easier to read. I also think the alias should be a good name instead of a letter. In the above example if I felt I needed to use 1 letter table alias I would use t for the Trip table and s for the segment table.
