How to select several hardcoded SQL rows?

If you execute this query

SELECT 'test-a1' AS name1, 'test-a2' AS name2

the result will be a one row-selection with two columns having these values:

test-a1, test-a2

How can I modify the above query to have a selection with several rows, e.g.

test-a1, test-a2
test-b1, test-b2
test-c1, test-c2

I know how to do this with UNION but I feel that there exists a more simple way to do it.

PS. Sorry for such a basic question, it is very hard to google it.

Answer

UNION ALL is the best bet. It’s faster than UNION and you will have mutually exclusive rows.