|  | Posted by Erland Sommarskog on 06/11/58 11:17 
Elroyskimms (elroyskimms@yahoo.com) writes:> Is there a security risk behind using SELECT * or is it a "Best
 > Practice"? Thanks!
 
 Best practice.
 
 Assume that the function where you use this query actually reads six of ten
 columns. First of all you save some network bandwidth, by only getting
 the columns you need. Second, assume that the DBA considers dropping
 one of the columns. If you explicitly list the columns you need, he can
 easily see whether you are using that column or not. Third, the DBA may add
 another column, and insert it in the middle, if you now have referred to
 columns by number in the client (which is bad practice), your function will
 stop working.
 
 SELECT * is wonderful for debugging when do you ad-hoc queries, but it's
 bad in production code.
 
 
 --
 Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@sommarskog.se
 
 Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
 http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/productdoc/2000/books.asp
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