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

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.

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

No.

Maintenance-light best practice is to specify only the required columns.

At least 2 reasons:

• This makes your contract between client and database stable. Same data, every time
• Performance, covering indexes

Edit (July 2011):

If you drag from Object Explorer the Columns node for a table, it puts a CSV list of columns in the Query Window for you which achieves one of your goals

If you don't want to write each column name manually you can use Script Table As by right clicking on table or view in SSMS like this:

Then you will get whole select query in New Query Editor Window then remove unwanted column like this:

Done