Declaring a Display Label

You can declare a display label for any column or column expression in the select list of the Projection clause. This temporary name is in scope only while the SELECT statement is executing.

In DB-Access, a display label appears as the heading for that column in the output of the SELECT statement.

In , the value of display_label is stored in the sqlname field of the sqlda structure. For more information on the sqlda structure, see the HCL OneDB™ ESQL/C Programmer's Manual.

If your display label is an SQL keyword, use the AS keyword to clarify the syntax. For example, to use UNITS, YEAR, MONTH, DAY, HOUR, MINUTE, SECOND, or FRACTION as display labels, use the AS keyword with the display label. The following statement uses AS with minute as a display label:
SELECT call_dtime AS minute FROM cust_calls;

For the keywords of SQL, see Keywords of SQL for HCL OneDB.

If you use the INTO Table clause to create a temporary or permanent table to store the query results, you must declare a display label for any database object or expression in the select list that is not a simple column expression. The display label is used as the name of the column in the temporary or permanent table.

If you are using the SELECT statement to define a view, do not use display labels. Specify the desired label names in the CREATE VIEW column list instead.