Oh god, that’s worse than I’ve seen where a SQL query joining 10 tables aliased all of the tables as a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j.

It was a mess, and as a new dev on the project, trying to figure out which where clause was for which table and how things worked was a fucking nightmare. Trying to keep a dictionary of letters to real table names in your head as you looked at the query was very taxing. In the end, I just fixed it all to stop using aliases. Or to use short abbreviations.

Here’s a mock example:

SELECT
    j.delivery_eta,
    c.cat_desc,
    a.part_number,
    h.region_label,
    f.wh_loc,
    e.emp_last,
    g.state_flag,
    b.mfg_title,
    i.ship_track_code,
    d.order_sum,
    a.created_on,
    j.last_scanned_at,
    e.emp_first,
    c.cat_code,
    g.state_level
FROM parts AS a
INNER JOIN manufacturers AS b 
    ON a.manufacturers_id = b.id
INNER JOIN categories AS c 
    ON a.categories_id = c.id
INNER JOIN orders AS d 
    ON a.orders_id = d.id
INNER JOIN employees AS e 
    ON d.employees_id = e.id
INNER JOIN warehouses AS f 
    ON a.warehouses_id = f.id
INNER JOIN inv_state AS g 
    ON a.inv_state_id = g.id
INNER JOIN regions AS h 
    ON f.regions_id = h.id
INNER JOIN shipments AS i 
    ON d.shipments_id = i.id
INNER JOIN logistics AS j 
    ON i.logistics_id = j.id
WHERE
    (b.mfg_title LIKE '%Corp%' OR b.mfg_title LIKE '%Global%')
    AND c.cat_desc NOT IN ('Unknown', 'None', 'Legacy')
    AND (d.order_sum > 1000 OR d.order_sum BETWEEN 250 AND 275)
    AND e.emp_last ILIKE '%berg'
    AND (f.wh_loc IN ('A1', 'Z9', 'M3') OR f.wh_loc IS NULL)
    AND g.state_flag IN ('ACT', 'PENDING')
    AND h.region_label NOT LIKE 'EXT-%'
    AND (i.ship_track_code IS NOT NULL AND i.ship_track_code <> '')
    AND (j.delivery_eta < NOW() + INTERVAL '90 days' OR j.last_scanned_at IS NULL)
    AND (a.part_number ~ '^[A-Z0-9]+$' OR a.part_number IS NULL)
    AND (
        (c.cat_code = 'X1' AND g.state_level > 2)
        OR
        (e.emp_first ILIKE 'J%' AND d.orders_id IS NOT NULL)
    );