Question

I have compiled a string that queries a database like so:

stringCompiler = "SELECT * FROM SomeTable";

The problem is that some of the columns have spaces in their names (i.e., “City Tag Number”).

How can I call this later after I use the db.Query statement. Example:

foreach(var row in db.Query(stringCompiler))
{
    var someVariable = row.Column With Spaces;
}

Obviously the above code would produce an error.

I could go through each column instead of using ‘ * ‘, all the while assigning aliases to all of the column names with spaces in them. Example:

stringCompiler = "SELECT \"City Tag Number\" AS CityTagNumber, ...";

But there are a lot of column names in this table and I am assuming there is a better way, and that I just can’t find it (I promise, I’ve looked).

Any help is much appreciated.

—————-EDIT————————

I should’ve specified that I was using SqlServer.

Answer 1

In a sql text passed to the DB engine, usually (but it depends on the actual db) you use square brackets (SqlServer, Access) or backticks (mysql)

 stringCompiler = "SELECT [City Tag Number] AS CityTagNumber, ...";

 stringCompiler = "SELECT `City Tag Number` AS CityTagNumber, ...";

while in code (assuming row is a DataRow) you use the name of the column as string

foreach(var row in db.Query(stringCompiler))
{
    var someVariable = row["City Tag Number"].ToString();
}