How do I perform a GROUP BY on an aliased column in MS-SQL Server?

Question

I\'m trying to perform a group by action on an aliased column (example below) but can\'t determine the proper syntax.

SELECT       LastName + \', \'         


        

Answer 1

You can use CROSS APPLY to create an alias and use it in the GROUP BY clause, like so:

SELECT       FullName
FROM         Customers
CROSS APPLY  (SELECT LastName + ', ' + FirstName AS FullName) Alias
GROUP BY     FullName