Adding column name to existing table in SQL Server

Question

I want to add a column name for my table

create table flowers
(
     flowerName varchar (22) not null, primary key
)

Instead of the result being:

flowerName
----------
tulip

I want the result to be:

The Name of the flower is:
--------------------------
tulip

You do that in a query, not in the table. flowerName is a really good name for the column. — Gordon Linoff
– Gordon Linoff, Commented Oct 19, 2017 at 17:51

UnhandledExcepSean · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-19 17:51:35Z

3

It looks like all you want to do is alias the column. This is easily handled by the following:

select flowerName AS [The Name of the flower is:] from flowers

answered Oct 19, 2017 at 17:51

UnhandledExcepSean

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3 Comments

Hanna Over a year ago

thank you, but when I do a "select * from flowers", the name changes back to flowerName in the result pane, I want it to always say "The name of the flower is"

UnhandledExcepSean Over a year ago

@Hanna You can't alias *; each column must be aliased individually.

UnhandledExcepSean Over a year ago

Since you want it to always be that way, you have two options that @zorkolot showed in his answer.

tacotuesday · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-19 17:51:44Z

0

You can't do that on table creation, but you can do it on select in SQL, or change it in output in the language that you're using to connect.

If you want to do it in SQL, it would be something like:
SELECT flowerName as 'The Name of the flower is' FROM flowers

answered Oct 19, 2017 at 17:51

tacotuesday

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Comments

Zorkolot · Accepted Answer · 2017-10-19 18:50:48Z

0

This should be it.

create table flowers
(
     [The Name of the flower is:] varchar (22) not null primary key
)

If you want to alter the table name:

ALTER TABLE flowers
RENAME COLUMN "flowerName" TO "The Name of the flower is:"

Alternatively if you're adventurous (and don't want to change the original table structure) you can make a view:

CREATE VIEW vwFlowers AS
SELECT flowerName AS [The Name of the flower is:]
  FROM flowers

Then you can: SELECT * FROM vwFlowers

edited Oct 19, 2017 at 18:50

answered Oct 19, 2017 at 18:41

Zorkolot

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1 Comment

UnhandledExcepSean Over a year ago

The view would be the right option in my opinion. Column names looking like that are a bootable offense.

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