Date: 02/11/05 (MySQL Communtiy)    Keywords: programming, sql

I basically taught myself programming so majority of times my code isn't as efficient as it could be.

my question is w/ sql statements... if i only need say 1 field from a table should i use

"select X FROM table"

or is

"select * from table" as efficient

i know common sense is pointing me to the first example but it never hurts to ask. also what happens if i need like 4 or 5 fields out of 10... would that be the same situation as if it were just 1 like the example above?

Source: http://www.livejournal.com/community/mysql/48500.html