RE : full featured alter table?

Hello,

> why not just order the output columns in alphabetical order?
> This is quite easy to implement and requires no additional
> storage. The output would be the same all the time and with all tools.

No, what we are talking about is to have the possibility to choose the
output order of the columns of a table (by adding a field in the
pg_attribute table).

I don't like GUI applications that creates their own tables in my schema
to store ordering or displaying informations. All the GUI that can
manages PostgreSQL database could use the pg_attribute table to store
the output order of the columns of the table.

I think that displays the output columns in alphabetical order will not
bring anything interesting...    But if the pg_attributes table can be
enhanced to store order output, you could have the possibility to sort
yourself the ouput order. (Logical order, alphabetical order, or another
order...). The pg_attributes table would store (as I imagine) the
ordering number of each column.

> People again should be warned to use select *
> in applications, but this is another thing...

I agree with you, SELECT * must be avoided as much as possible.

Regards,

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Bruno BAGUETTE - pgsql-ml@baguette.net