Aliases

If the structure of a returned query is not ideal for a given application, you can rename fields and entire query results to suit your use case. This is particularly useful, and sometimes necessary when using multiple queries within a single request.

{
    topTenBooks: Books(sort: {rating: DESC}, limit: 10) {
        title
        genre
        description
    }
}

In the above example, the books result is renamed to topTenBooks, which can be useful for semantic reasoning about the request, and for organizational purposes. It is suggested in production deployments to name your queries properly.

{
    topTenBooks: Books(sort: {rating: DESC}, limit: 10) {
        title
        genre
        description
    }
    
    bottomTenBooks: Books(sort: {rating: ASC}, limit: 10) {
        title
        genre
        description
    }
}

In this query the two returned results are named topTenBooks and bottomTenBooks respectively. When dealing with multiple queries of the same type (e.g., books), it is required to alias one from another.

Additionally, we can alias individual fields within our returned types. Aliasing a field works the same way as aliasing a query.

{
    Books {
        name: title
        genre
        description
    }
}

In the above example, we have renamed the title field to name. Unlike query aliases, there is no requirement in any context because name collisions are impossible within a defined query return type.