Question

I have a table in SQL Server 2005 with a variable number of columns, the first two being the only ones which are constant.
I’ve managed to get the number of columns in the table, so I would have what to count up to, but I don’t really know how to select a variable number of columns.

SELECT
DISTINCT
COUNT(*)
FROM
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.[COLUMNS]
WHERE
TABLE_NAME = 'SOME_TABLE'
AND
(COLUMN_NAME <> 'STATIC_COL1' AND COLUMN_NAME <> 'STATIC_COL2')

I’m guessing I need to use a while loop to get each column.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

Edit:
I ended up using @aF’s suggestion of dynamic SQL (see below)

DECLARE @CMD  AS VARCHAR(MAX)
SET @CMD = 'SELECT '
DECLARE @COL AS VARCHAR(MAX)

DECLARE COLUMN_CURSOR CURSOR FOR
SELECT
COLUMN_NAME
FROM
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.[COLUMNS]
WHERE
TABLE_NAME = 'SOME_TABLE'

OPEN COLUMN_CURSOR
FETCH NEXT FROM COLUMN_CURSOR
INTO @COL
WHILE @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
BEGIN

IF @COL = 'STATIC_COL1'
BEGIN
SET @CMD = @CMD + @COL
END

FETCH NEXT FROM COLUMN_CURSOR
INTO @COL

SET @CMD = @CMD + ', CAST(' + @COL +' AS INT) AS ' + @COL

END
CLOSE COLUMN_CURSOR
DEALLOCATE COLUMN_CURSOR

SET @CMD = @CMD + ' FROM SOME_TABLE'

EXEC (@CMD)

Answer 1

One way to do it:

The following select gives you the list of columns:

SELECT
column_name
FROM
INFORMATION_SCHEMA.[COLUMNS]
WHERE
TABLE_NAME = 'SOME_TABLE'
AND
(COLUMN_NAME <> 'STATIC_COL1' AND COLUMN_NAME <> 'STATIC_COL1')

With that, you can construct the intended query and use dynamic SQL to execute it.

Dynamic SQL is something like this:

declare @cmd = 'select * from some_table'
exec(@cmd)

In you case, you need to construct the @cmd with the columns from the first select.