> The SQL standard dictates nothing to that effect Actually, the SQL-92 specification says that > 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 referenced in the ascending sequence of their ordinal position within T. The problem with * is not that the database might reorder the columns, but that humans will tell the database to alter them in the table.