An alias is a feature of SQL that is supported by most, if not all, RDBMSs. It is a temporary name assigned to the table or table column for the purpose of a particular SQL query. In addition, aliasing can be employed as an obfuscation technique to secure the real names of database fields. A table alias is also called a correlation name .
An alias is represented explicitly by the AS keyword but in some cases the same can be performed without it as well. Nevertheless, using the AS keyword is always a good practice.
SELECT A.emp_name AS "Employee" /* Alias using AS keyword */
B.emp_name AS "Supervisor"
FROM employee A, employee B /* Alias without AS keyword */
WHERE A.emp_sup = B.emp_id;
