Question

I have the following SQL statement

SELECT be.*, it.order_number
FROM songs AS be

INNER JOIN
(
    SELECT song_id, order_number
    FROM items
    WHERE order_status = 1
) it
ON be.id = it.song_id

INNER JOIN orders AS or
ON it.order_number = or.order_number

WHERE be.active = 0

I can’t seem to understand why this statement does not produce any results. When I remove the following line;

INNER JOIN orders AS or
ON it.order_number = or.order_number

It seems to produce results, and I know that the order_number does exist in the orders table – so it’s clearly incorrect syntax but i’m not sure where to go from here? Appreciate the help.

Answer 1

The problem in this particular instance is that the or in the query is a reserved word. You can use that if you wish, but you’ll have to quote it, like so

SELECT be.*, it.order_number
FROM songs AS be

INNER JOIN
(
    SELECT song_id, order_number
    FROM items
    WHERE order_status = 1
) it
ON be.id = it.song_id

INNER JOIN orders AS "or"
ON it.order_number = "or".order_number

WHERE be.active = 0

Generally though, for readability, I’d avoid such names. If you have to quote it or escape it, it’s probably a bad name.