"Simon Riggs" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > If this is standards-breaking as you say, I would withdraw immediately. > I checked the SQL standard and could not see how this would do so. The > standard states SELECT * would return columns in order; it doesn't say > what that order should be, nor does CREATE TABLE enforce the ordering to > be the same as it has specified, AFAICS.
SQL92 7.9 <query specification> defines the meaning of SELECT * as b) Otherwise, the <select list> "*" is equivalent to a <value expression> sequence in which each <value expression> is a <column reference> that references a column of T and each column of T is referenced exactly once. The columns are ref- erenced in the ascending sequence of their ordinal position within T. 11.3 <table definition> says 2) The degree of the table being created is initially set to 0; the General Rules of Subclause 11.4, "<column definition>" specify the degree of the table being created during the definition of columns in that table. and 11.4 <column definition> says 4) The degree of the table T being defined in the containing <table definition> or <temporary table declaration> or altered by the containing <alter table statement> is increased by 1. 5) A column descriptor is created that describes the column being defined. .... The ordinal position included in the column descriptor is equal to the degree of T. Now, I will grant you that it doesn't actually say anywhere that the column definitions in CREATE TABLE must be processed left to right, but if they meant this behavior to be implementation-dependent they would have said so. Given the number of places in the spec in which semantics are directly dependent on ordinal position, I cannot think that that is intended --- for example, the behavior of <row comparison> becomes completely undefined if column ordinal positions aren't fixed. regards, tom lane ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 5: don't forget to increase your free space map settings