I don't know which version of sqlAnywhere you are using but I just checked in version 11 and the alias syntax seems to work fine.

>>I now prefer using this syntax:
>>

>>;with cteToUpdate (select goes here)
>>
>>select * from cteToUpdate -- if this works OK, then comment it
>>
>>update cteToUpdate set ...
>>
>>

>>
>>This is SQL Server proprietary code.
>
>I am not familiar with the "with" syntax. Could you elaborate more on it? Basically, I am looking at one SQL. I do not want to execute something in SSMS, for example, from various commands in a row. So, I am interested to know if there is a more conventional syntax we should use in those circumstances.