Using column alias in WHERE clause of MySQL query

Question

The query I'm running is as follows, however I'm getting this error:

#1054 - Unknown column 'guaranteed_postcode' in 'IN/ALL/ANY subquery'

SELECT `users`.`first_name`, `users`.`last_name`, `users`.`email`,
SUBSTRING(`locations`.`raw`,-6,4) AS `guaranteed_postcode`
FROM `users` LEFT OUTER JOIN `locations`
ON `users`.`id` = `locations`.`user_id`
WHERE `guaranteed_postcode` NOT IN #this is where the fake col is being used
(
 SELECT `postcode` FROM `postcodes` WHERE `region` IN
 (
  'australia'
 )
)

My question is: why am I unable to use a fake column in the where clause of the same DB query?

Answer 1

You can only use column aliases in GROUP BY, ORDER BY, or HAVING clauses.

Standard SQL doesn't allow you to refer to a column alias in a WHERE clause. This restriction is imposed because when the WHERE code is executed, the column value may not yet be determined.

Copied from MySQL documentation

As pointed in the comments, using HAVING instead may do the work. Make sure to give a read at this WHERE vs HAVING though.

Answer 2

I am using mysql 5.5.24 and the following code works:

select * from (
SELECT `users`.`first_name`, `users`.`last_name`, `users`.`email`,
SUBSTRING(`locations`.`raw`,-6,4) AS `guaranteed_postcode`
FROM `users` LEFT OUTER JOIN `locations`
ON `users`.`id` = `locations`.`user_id`
) as a
WHERE guaranteed_postcode NOT IN --this is where the fake col is being used
(
 SELECT `postcode` FROM `postcodes` WHERE `region` IN
 (
  'australia'
 )
)