Is prefixing each field name in a table with abbreviated table name a good practice?

Question

Do you prefix each field in a table with abbreviated table name?

Example:

Table: User

Fields:
user_id
user_name
user_password

Or d

Answer 1

I'd recommend sticking with table aliases, like:

SELECT 
    user.id,
    user.email, 
    user.firstname, 
    user.secondname,
    avatar.filename
FROM
    pain_in_the_butt_table_name user
LEFT JOIN
    table_with_the_avatars avatar
ON avatar.user_id = user.id

The advantages:

• maintaining an easily comprehendable list of fields you select, and which tables you take them from

• avoid typing long or hard to comprehend table names and replace them with a short and understandable name (which you should have done when creating the table)

• perform joins that are readable (your example would read:

LEFT JOIN table_with_the_avatars.user_id ON user.user_id = table_with_the_avatars.avatars_user_i

• create even shorter aliases, in my example that would mean u instead of user, and a instead of avatar, shortening your query