SQL exclude a column using SELECT * [except columnA] FROM tableA?

sql sql-server tsql
uuɐɯǝʃǝs picture uuɐɯǝʃǝs · Apr 8, 2009 · Viewed 866.6k times · Source

We all know that to select all columns from a table, we can use

SELECT * FROM tableA

Is there a way to exclude column(s) from a table without specifying all the columns?

SELECT * [except columnA] FROM tableA

The only way that I know is to manually specify all the columns and exclude the unwanted column. This is really time consuming so I'm looking for ways to save time and effort on this, as well as future maintenance should the table has more/less columns.

Answer

Norman Skinner picture Norman Skinner · Nov 11, 2009

You can try it this way:

/* Get the data into a temp table */
SELECT * INTO #TempTable
FROM YourTable
/* Drop the columns that are not needed */
ALTER TABLE #TempTable
DROP COLUMN ColumnToDrop
/* Get results and drop temp table */
SELECT * FROM #TempTable
DROP TABLE #TempTable

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