Question

In MySQL, I have a simple "SELECT * FROM foo" query. I would like to JOIN table ‘bar’, but:

1. I only want one column from bar
2. I specifically DON’T want the id column from bar, because it will conflict with the id column from foo

I know that I could use as statements to avoid name conflicts, but I don’t want to complicate things. Is there a way to write this query without naming every column I want from foo?

In other words, can I say ‘give me all the columns from foo and just this one column from bar?

Update: Why this is bad practice

Folks have pointed out that "SELECT *" is generally bad practice, because:

• It returns unnecessary data. That could, now or in the future, include something large, like a BLOB data column.
• If the database schema changes, the query may not return one of the expected columns. If the column is named explicitly in the query, there will be an error; if not, it may fail silently (insert a blank where a title should go, for example).

Answer 1

SELECT foo.*, bar.whatever FROM ...

Note, however, that this is considered bad practice. You should always name all columns in the order you expect them to.