Column aliases in MySQL - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Using Column Aliases in SQL Queries

📖 Scenario: You work at a small bookstore. The store keeps a database of books with columns for the book's title, author, and price. You want to create a report that shows the book title and price, but with clearer column names for the report.

🎯 Goal: Create a SQL query that selects the title and price columns from the books table, but uses column aliases to rename title as Book_Title and price as Book_Price.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a table called books with columns title (VARCHAR), author (VARCHAR), and price (DECIMAL).

Insert three specific book records into the books table.

Write a SELECT query that uses column aliases to rename title as Book_Title and price as Book_Price.

Use the exact alias names Book_Title and Book_Price in the query.

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Column aliases help make SQL query results easier to read and understand, especially when generating reports or exporting data.

💼 Career

Using column aliases is a common skill for database analysts, developers, and anyone working with SQL to present data clearly.

1

Create the books table and insert data

Create a table called books with columns title as VARCHAR(100), author as VARCHAR(100), and price as DECIMAL(5,2). Then insert these three rows exactly: ('The Great Gatsby', 'F. Scott Fitzgerald', 10.99), ('1984', 'George Orwell', 8.99), and ('To Kill a Mockingbird', 'Harper Lee', 7.99).

MySQL

-- Create the books table and insert the three rows here
-- Your code here

Need a hint?

Use CREATE TABLE to define the table and INSERT INTO to add rows.

2

Write a basic SELECT query

Write a SELECT query that selects the title and price columns from the books table without any aliases.

MySQL

CREATE TABLE books (
  title VARCHAR(100),
  author VARCHAR(100),
  price DECIMAL(5,2)
);

INSERT INTO books (title, author, price) VALUES
('The Great Gatsby', 'F. Scott Fitzgerald', 10.99),
('1984', 'George Orwell', 8.99),
('To Kill a Mockingbird', 'Harper Lee', 7.99);

-- Write a SELECT query to get title and price from books
-- Your code here

Need a hint?

Use SELECT title, price FROM books; to get the columns.

3

Add column aliases to the SELECT query

Modify the SELECT query to use column aliases. Rename title as Book_Title and price as Book_Price using the AS keyword.

MySQL

CREATE TABLE books (
  title VARCHAR(100),
  author VARCHAR(100),
  price DECIMAL(5,2)
);

INSERT INTO books (title, author, price) VALUES
('The Great Gatsby', 'F. Scott Fitzgerald', 10.99),
('1984', 'George Orwell', 8.99),
('To Kill a Mockingbird', 'Harper Lee', 7.99);

-- Modify the SELECT query to use column aliases
-- Your code here

Need a hint?

Use AS to rename columns like title AS Book_Title.

4

Complete the query with aliases and order by price

Add an ORDER BY clause to the query to sort the results by Book_Price in ascending order. Use the alias Book_Price in the ORDER BY clause.

MySQL

CREATE TABLE books (
  title VARCHAR(100),
  author VARCHAR(100),
  price DECIMAL(5,2)
);

INSERT INTO books (title, author, price) VALUES
('The Great Gatsby', 'F. Scott Fitzgerald', 10.99),
('1984', 'George Orwell', 8.99),
('To Kill a Mockingbird', 'Harper Lee', 7.99);

-- Add ORDER BY clause using the alias Book_Price
-- Your code here

Need a hint?

Use ORDER BY Book_Price ASC to sort by the alias.