Comments on SELECT "AliasName" = ColName vs. AS

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Comments on SELECT "AliasName" = ColName vs. AS

mbarrentine

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Points: 112
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January 3, 2004 at 8:17 pm

#152001

Your thoughts on using SELECT "AliasName" = ColName vs. SELECT ColName AS "AliasName". ColName could also be calculated data (either string concatenation or numeric).
I find having a mixture of alias names and table column names all on the left side is easier to follow than to have the table column names on the left and column aliases on the right.
SELECT
OrderID,
ProductID,
"Amount" = UnitPrice * Quantity,
"Long Case" = CASE
WHEN .....
WHEN .....
ELSE ...
END
versus the harder to follow (at least for me)
SELECT
OrderID,
ProductID,
UnitPrice * Quantity AS "Amount",
CASE
WHEN .....
WHEN .....
ELSE ...
END AS "Long Case"
From the research I have done thus far, "AS" is ANSI complient whereas "=" is not. Microsoft's "Best Practices Analyzer" didn't complain about the "=" as long as I enclosed the alias name in quotes.
So as long as the code is written strictly for SQL Server, the "=" should be OK unless MS decides to remove this from future versions?

Viewing 6 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

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jxflagg Hall of Fame Points: 3817 More actions · Answer 1

This sounds like it may be a religious issue. I guess it all depends on what you're used to. I've always used ColName as AliasName and I've found it to be very readable. I tend to line up my aliases in a column so I can immedidately recognize which columns are aliased.

I would think you're fine as long as you're consistent.

Crispin Proctor SSCoach Points: 18161 More actions · Answer 2

Note in all the system procs, MS use 'aaa' = and not AS.

I personally use AS the same way jxflagg does. Makes it easy to read.

Reason why Microsoft's "Best Practices Analyzer" didn't complain. They do it

Cheers,

Crispin

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Frank Kalis SSC Guru Points: 111183 More actions · Answer 3

Actually I only want to ask if you can be really sure to always develop against SQL Server? Although which style you choose depends on personal preferences, but I would stick to the ANSI Standard. I guess that's what standards are for

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Frank Kalis
Microsoft SQL Server MVP
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Johan Bijnens SSC Guru Points: 135361 More actions · Answer 4

Functionality should be the same. Physical implementation might not be. I'd stick to aht ANSI standard. cfr isnull and coalesce.

Johan

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edwin_fredrick Old Hand Points: 364 More actions · Answer 5

ANSI is the way to go. but if you stick to ANSI standards you wont be able to use functions. Some of the additional features provided my MS SQL are not ANSI standard.

I am not sure if ANSI supports functions