From: "Adam" <s3057043@...>

>
> Other examples are (as other people have posted), storing a display
> order field in your table. Why return it if you have no interest in the
> value itself?

Although this is the best reason I have seen and used, I would like to
interject my thought about this subject before Helen (the one with the
pointy hat) kicks the thread out the door. :)

When dealing with database servers, the query work is all done on the server
so whether or not the field it sorts on is used by the client or not doesn't
and shouldn't matter to the server at all. It really doesn't care one way or
the other, nor should it. All it cares about is syntactically correct SQL
grammar. What, how and why you use the data it returns is of no consequence
to it. There are many times where I run a query that contains a join used
for filtering, without returning any of the join fields. Should it not allow
that either? It mirrors the same principle, IMO.

Woody (TMW)