Aliases for Field Names in SELECT statements

A thread on the postgres users mail list asks how to write a SELECT
statement using a column alias (e.g., SELECT emp_id AS e FROM employee), and
Bruce Momjian responded that it's not possible and on the To-Do list to not
be done.

I ask if this is correct or if Bruce mis-understood the original statement
that the SQL standard makes aliases optional in implementation.

All the SQL books I've read heavily use aliases in complex, multi-level
SELECT statements so I just assumed that postgres allowed their use.

Rich

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Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D. | Integrity Credibility
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. | Innovation
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