# Is "alias" reserved?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-alias-reserved/54460>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [March 6, 2006, 1:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-alias-reserved/54460 "2006-03-06T01:51:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 1:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-alias-reserved/54460/1 "2006-03-06T01:51:53Z")

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I’m playing with an online store…

I have an orders table which holds orders (pricing, statuses, etc).  
An orderDetails table which holds detailed line items (itemNumbers, unit  
prices, etc).

Each order can have multiple shipping addresses, so I also have  
an addressbook table. Each orderDetail is tied to an addressbook entry  
via the ordernumber and addressbook alias, but this doesn’t seem to work  
for me.

* * *

## class OrderDetail \< ActiveRecord::Base set\_table\_name “orderDetails” belongs\_to :order, :foreign\_key =\> ‘orderNumber’ has\_many :addressbooks, :finder\_sql =\> 'SELECT \* ’ + 'FROM addressbooks addr ’ + ‘WHERE addr.orderNumber = “#{orderNumber}”’ + ‘AND addr.alias = “#{alias}”’ end

I try to access the addressbook of a specific orderDetail (line item)  
and it barfs.

* * *

(eval):1:in `instance\_eval’: compile error  
(eval):1: syntax error  
%@SELECT \* FROM addressbooks addr WHERE addr.orderNumber =  
“#{orderNumber}” AND addr.alias = “#{alias}”@  
^  
(eval):1: unterminated string meets end of file

* * *

Just wondering if the word “alias” is a reserved word  
for either mysql or rails?

thanks!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 1:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-alias-reserved/54460/2 "2006-03-06T01:57:37Z")

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Yeah, alias is a reserved word.

You might find  
[http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/ruby\_on\_rails\_cheat\_sheet.png](http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/ruby_on_rails_cheat_sheet.png)  
helpful.

Pat

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a87d85/32.png) [@pezdude](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/pezdude)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2006, 2:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-alias-reserved/54460/3 "2006-03-06T02:03:42Z")

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Pat M. wrote:

> Yeah, alias is a reserved word.
> 
> You might find  
> [http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/ruby\_on\_rails\_cheat\_sheet.png](http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/ruby_on_rails_cheat_sheet.png)  
> helpful.
> 
> Pat

Thanks, Pat.  
That’s an awesome resource.

🙂