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Written by Andrew Gould
Now that you know the basics of writing queries in SQL Server Management Studio here are a couple of techniques that can help speed up the process.
When you're working with large tables and you want to include all of the columns in a query it can be annoying to have to type out all of the column names. To avoid this you can use the asterisk symbol to show all of the columns in a table:
Replace the normal column names with the asterisk symbol in the SELECT list.
This is a quick and simple way to include all of the table columns, but it does mean that you can't add aliases to the columns and you have no control over the order in which the columns appear.
There are other good reasons not to use the asterisk to select all of the columns from a table, one of which is the performance of your query.
Rather than using the asterisk to include all of the columns from a table you can choose to script a table as a query. To do this, right-click on the table and choose the option shown in the diagram below:
Right-click on the table and choose the sequence of options shown here.
You will end up with a new query window and a complete SELECT statement that includes all of the columns from the selected table:
You can now remove any columns you don't want, put the columns in a different order and add your own aliases.
You can learn more about this topic on the following Wise Owl courses:
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