References Rules (RF)

RF01

Qualified column references must use a known table alias.

When a column is qualified (alias.column), the qualifier must be an alias (or bare table name) that was defined in the FROM clause of the same query.

-- bad: 'x' is not a known alias
select x.id from orders o where x.status = 'active'

-- good
select o.id from orders o where o.status = 'active'

Note: RF01 is best-effort. It may produce false negatives for complex subquery and CTE patterns where aliases are defined in nested scopes.

RF02

Wildcard column references are not allowed; list columns explicitly.

SELECT * and SELECT table.* are flagged. In production SQL, implicit column lists cause breakage when upstream tables change.

-- bad
select * from orders
select o.* from orders o

-- good: list columns explicitly
select id, status, created_at from orders

Exceptions — not flagged:

• COUNT(*) — the star is inside function parens, not a column reference
• COUNT(DISTINCT *) — same
• Arithmetic: select a * b from t — star preceded by a value token is an operator

-- ok: COUNT(*) is not a wildcard column reference
select count(*) from orders

-- ok: arithmetic multiplication
select price * quantity as total from order_items