AS is optional as it was "syntactic sugar" added to SQL so that Managers and others with no computer skills could read SQL too, just like the overriding design principle of COBOL wasto be "so simple and english like that even management could understand it". Having to end each statement with a period (.) was rejected because the period is already a reserved separator. Other syntactic sugar include the JOIN and ON syntax and keywords.
If sugary coatings were made mandatory then perfectly legal SQL written between 1972 and 1995 would all have to be recoded with the sugary coating, thus breaking backward compatibility, and this was not a desired outcome of the standardization process. > -----Original Message----- > From: sqlite-users [mailto:sqlite-users-boun...@mailinglists.sqlite.org] > On Behalf Of Tim Streater > Sent: Thursday, 11 August, 2016 08:57 > To: sqlite-users@mailinglists.sqlite.org > Subject: [sqlite] AS being optional > > Is there a reason why AS is optional, such that: > > select a b, c from x > > is equivalent to: > > select a as b, c from x; > > I agree it couldn't be changed now, but luckily I spotted that I had > omitted a comma, before it was too late. > > -- > Cheers -- Tim > _______________________________________________ > sqlite-users mailing list > sqlite-users@mailinglists.sqlite.org > http://mailinglists.sqlite.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users _______________________________________________ sqlite-users mailing list sqlite-users@mailinglists.sqlite.org http://mailinglists.sqlite.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sqlite-users
