What does USING do in a JOIN?

SQLMiddle~1 min read

USING in a JOIN is a shorthand for the join condition, used when the columns in both tables share the same name.

sql

SELECT *
FROM orders
JOIN customers USING (customer_id);

This is the same as:

sql

SELECT *
FROM orders
JOIN customers ON orders.customer_id = customers.customer_id;

The difference: with USING, the result has only one customer_id column, not two (one from each table).

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