From: "Helen Borrie" <helebor@...>

> Specify your output set's degree by providing a column list to your SELECT
> clause. SELECT * is not recommended practice for serious work.

OK, not to start a flame war here, but why? I really can't think of any but
a select (pardon the pun) few reasons when exact field order matters. Any
other time, field order has no bearing on a program using data. I have never
had a reason to worry about field order through all the years of working
with databases. Why have the hassles of going through all SQL in a program
whenever a field is added, deleted, renamed, etc. and risk bugs whenever all
or most fields are needed in the query anyway.

Saying that SELECT * is not recommended for serious work is a broad
statement that should only apply to few, if any, situations, IMO.

The real danger, AFAIAC, is relying on field order instead of field names.

Woody (TMW)