What does parenthesis mean in MySQL SELECT (COLNAME)?

The SELECT(COLNAME) means, we are creating an alias for that column. Let us see an example and create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable865(    FirstName varchar(100),    LastName varchar(100) ); Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.77 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable865 values('Chris','Brown'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable865 values('Adam','Smith'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable865 values('David','Miller'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.11 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable865 values('Carol','Taylor'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.15 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable865;

This will produce the following output −

+-----------+----------+ | FirstName | LastName | +-----------+----------+ | Chris     | Brown | | Adam      | Smith | | David     | Miller | | Carol     | Taylor | +-----------+----------+ 4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Here, we are creating an alias for the column with SELECT (COLNAME) MySQL −

mysql> select (FirstName) StudentFirstName,(LastName) StudentLastName from DemoTable865;

This will produce the following output −

+------------------+-----------------+ | StudentFirstName | StudentLastName | +------------------+-----------------+ | Chris            | Brown           | | Adam             | Smith           | | David            | Miller          | | Carol            | Taylor          | +------------------+-----------------+ 4 rows in set (0.00 sec)