Creating and Editing Aliases

Go Up to Creating and Editing Database Dependent Objects

An alias is an alternate name for an alias, synonym, table, view or for another undetermined object type. (You can only create an Alias for a synonym on the IBM DB2 for OS/390 or z/OS platforms.) An alias can provide a more meaningful object name for the target audience. An alias can also act as a low-overhead view. Table aliases can refer to each other in a process called chaining. Aliases let you assign the permissions of a database user to an object without creating a separate user entity or masking a user's identity.

The following database platforms support Aliases:

• IBM DB2 for LUW 5.x, 6.x, 7.x, 8.x, 9.x, 10.x
• IBM DB2 for OS/390 5.x - 10.x
• IBM DB2 for z/OS 7.x, 8.x, 9.x, 10.x, and 11.x
• The DB2 Alias Wizard and DB2 Alias Editor share the same options, except for Attachment Bindings options which are present only in the editor.

Create an Alias

1. In the Data Model Explorer, expand the Physical Main Model, right-click the Aliases node, and then select New Alias.
2. Complete the DB2 Alias Wizard and then click Finish to create the alias.
3. Once you have created the alias, you can edit it by right-clicking the alias you want to change, and then selecting Edit Alias.

Name page/tab

Enter the name of alias and its owner.

• The alias name is the fully-qualified name of the alias and must not be the same as any table, view, alias, or synonym on the current server.
• The owner name is the user ID for the owner of the alias. This name is the authorization ID that qualifies the alias.

Reference page/tab

Select the type of object you want to reference. If there are any objects in the model that match your selection, you can click the identifier list to choose the appropriate identifier.

Definition page/tab

Enter or edit a definition for the alias. If the target database supports it, ER/Studio Data Architect adds this definition as a comment when generating SQL code. The maximum length of comments in the DDL is 254 characters.

DDL page/tab

Displays the CREATE ALIAS statement needed to build the alias. ER/Studio Data Architect uses the platform-specific parser of the model's selected database platform to generate the alias.

Attachment Bindings tab

Bind an external piece of information, or attachment to the alias. You can also remove an attachment from an object, override an attachment binding's default value, or change the position of a bound attachment. To override the value of the attachment you have moved to the Selected Attachments grid, double-click the Value field of the target attachment. ER/Studio Data Architect opens the Value Override Editor or a list depending on the attachment datatype. Attachments are created in the Attachments folder of the Data Dictionary and must be applied to the alias before they will display on this tab. For more information, see Attaching External Documents to the Data Model.

See Also

• Creating and Editing Relationships
• Creating and Editing Columns
• Attaching External Documents to the Data Model