Re: Thoughts on "SELECT * EXCLUDING (...) FROM ..."? - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

From Darren Duncan
Subject Re: Thoughts on "SELECT * EXCLUDING (...) FROM ..."?
Date
Msg-id 4EADEB06.8080307@darrenduncan.net
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: Thoughts on "SELECT * EXCLUDING (...) FROM ..."?  (Mark Mielke <mark@mark.mielke.cc>)
Responses Re: Thoughts on "SELECT * EXCLUDING (...) FROM ..."?  (Christopher Browne <cbbrowne@gmail.com>)
List pgsql-hackers
Mark Mielke wrote:
> On 10/30/2011 03:50 PM, Eric Ridge wrote:
>> Changes of omission can break your code just as easily.
> 
> I think I wasn't as clear as I intended. In many ways, I think use of 
> "*" in the first place is wrong for code (despite that I do it as well). 
> Therefore, "* EXCLUDING (...)" would also be wrong. It comes to "does 
> the code know what it wants?"
<snip>
> 
> "select *" is not deterministic from a programming perspective.

I understand what you're saying.  However, we're stuck with * because it is in 
the standard and is widely used, and if we have * anyway, then the exclusion 
proposal is just an enhancement to that.  So there is no reason to reject the 
complementary columns feature because of the problems with "select *"; you might 
as well argue to get rid of "select *". -- Darren Duncan


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