Alternatives to USING in a JOIN for SQL Server for avoiding duplicated columns in joined table

Question

SQL Server does not offer the keyword USING in the context of a JOIN,
nor it provides a NATURAL JOIN.

Besides explicitly (manually) listing all the columns (link

Answer 1

I wouldn't recommend this, but in an effort to answer your question, you could create a sql clause builder function that automatically creates column aliases for your individual tables prefixed with the tablename (or customize it if you'd like):

declare @tableName nvarchar(100);


set @tableName = 'TestTable';

select @tableName + '.' + c.name + ' AS ' + @tableName + '_' + c.name
from sys.tables t
    inner join sys.columns c on c.object_id = t.object_id
where
    t.name = @tableName

Output for my little 2-column table

TestTable.TestColumn1 AS TestTable_TestColumn1
TestTable.TestColumn2 AS TestTable_TestColumn2

Hypothetical usage

declare @sql nvarchar(1000) = '';
set @sql = myClauseBuilder('TestTable');

set @sql = @sql + ',' + myClauseBuilder('TestTable2');

set @sql = @sql + ' FROM TestTable INNER JOIN TestTable2....(etc.)

exec @sql