A table alias is a short name for a table
When a query uses more than one table, you write the table name in front of a column to say where it comes from. That gets long, so you give the table an alias — a short nickname written right after its name — and use the alias in front of the columns instead.
A tiny example
In plain English: Show me each student's name next to the title of the class they belong to.
SELECT s.name, c.title
FROM students s
JOIN classes c ON c.id = s.class_id;What comes back
| name | title |
|---|---|
| Amara | Biology |
| Theo | History |
The name came from students (s) and the title from classes (c) — the aliases say which table each column is from.
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