I'm fairly new to PHP/MySql and using queries in general. I was just wondering if there's any benefit to using "AS" in a query other than trying to make it look cleaner? Does it speed up the query at all? I probably could have figured this out by a google search but I wanted to ask my first question and see how this works. I WILL select an answer (unlike some people...) with: SELECT news.id as id news.name as name FROM news without: SELECT news.id news.name FROM news A more complex example from a many-to-many relationship tutorial I found: SELECT c.name, cf.title FROM celebrities AS c JOIN ( SELECT icf.c_id, icf.f_id, f.title FROM int_cf AS icf JOIN films AS f ON icf.f_id = f.f_id ) AS cf ON c.c_id = cf.c_id ORDER BY c.c_id ASC