SQLite: reuse quoted alias

Question

I'd like to reuse an alias that contains a non-alphabetic character in a query, something like:

 SELECT 42 AS "the#answer", "the#answer"+8 AS "fifty";

Output I want: 42|50; output I get: 42|8.

I've tried almost every possible combination of quote types, and looked for documentation, but I can't seem to find a working solution.

Any idea?

Answer 1

SQL cannot refer to an alias from the same output clause in which it was introduced. (It has nothing to do with quoting, which only allows otherwise invalid identifiers; some SQL vendors would have thrown an error, but SQLite appears "more relaxed" in the handling of this case.)

You could use a nested query (sqlfiddle).

SELECT fortytwo, fortytwo + 8 as fifty
FROM (
    SELECT 42 AS fortytwo)

This works because the referenced identifier, fortytwo, was introduced in a "previous" output clause.