MySQL - Alias
You can give a table or a column another name by using an alias. This can be a good thing to do if you have very long or complex table names or column names. An alias name could be anything, but usually it is short.
MySQL Alias Syntax for Tables
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
AS alias_name
MySQL Alias Syntax for Columns
SELECT column_name AS alias_name
FROM table_name
MySQL Alias Example
Assume we have a table called "Persons" and another table called "Orders". We will give the table aliases of "p" and "o" respectively. Now we want to list all the orders that "Haru Sanjaya" is responsible for. We use the following SELECT statement:
SELECT o.OrderID, p.LastName, p.FirstName
FROM Persons AS p, Orders AS o
WHERE p.FirstName='Haru' AND p.LastName='Sanjaya'
The same SELECT statement without aliases:
SELECT Orders.OrderID, Persons.LastName, Persons.FirstName
FROM Persons, Orders
WHERE Persons.FirstName='Haru' AND Persons.LastName='Sanjaya'
As you'll see from the two SELECT statements above; aliases can make queries easier to both write and to read.
