Can you SELECT everything, but 1 or 2 fields, without writer's cramp?

No - you either get all fields (*) OR specify the fields you want.


If you want to avoid the writer's cramp, you can use SQL Developer and have it generate the column list for you:

select column_name||','
from all_tab_columns
where table_name = 'YourTableName'

And then just take out the one or two columns that you don't want.

You can also use 

SELECT listagg(column_name, ',') within group (order by column_name) columns
FROM all_tab_columns
WHERE table_name = 'TABLE_NAME'
GROUP BY table_name;

An old thread but, yes... there is a way to do it in Oracle:

with

employee(id, firstname, lastname, hobbies) as
(
  select 1, 'a', 'b', '1' from dual union 
  select 2, 'a', 'b', '2' from dual union 
  select 3, 'a', 'b', '3' from dual union 
  select 4, 'c', 'd', '3' from dual union 
  select 5, 'e', 'f', '2' from dual  
)

select * 
from employee 
pivot
( 
  max(1) -- fake  
  for (hobbies) -- put the undesired columns here
  IN () -- no values here...
) 
where 1=1 -- and your filters here...
order by id

To understand how the PIVOT works and why it solves the question, lets take a better example for our employee sample table:

select * 
from employee 
pivot
(
  max(id) foo,
  max(1)  bar
  for (hobbies) 
  IN ('2' as two, '3' as three)
)

The result here is: 

FIRSTNAME | LASTNAME | TWO_FOO | TWO_BAR | THREE_FOO | THREE_BAR
    c          d         null      null        4           1
    e          f           5        1         null        null
    a          b           2        1          3           1

The exact same output can be achieved using this easier to understand query:

select 
  firstname,
  lastname,
  max(case when hobbies = '2' then id end) two_foo,
  max(case when hobbies = '2' then 1  end) two_bar,
  max(case when hobbies = '3' then id end) three_foo,
  max(case when hobbies = '3' then 1  end) three_bar
from employee 
group by
  firstname,
  lastname

So, the column hobbies is never selected, just as the column id, both specified inside the PIVOT clause. All other columns are grouped and selected.

Well, returning to the first query, it works for two reasons:
1- you will not lose any row in the grouping process because the id column is unique and no columns were specified for aggregations;
2- as the pivot generates N * M new columns, where N = number of values of the IN clause and M = number of aggregations specified, so having no filters and that single harmless aggregation will produce 0 * 1 = 0 new columns and will remove the ones specified in the PIVOT clause, which is just the hobbies.


ANSWER TO COMMENT 1

The first line of this question says: "... without having to specify the fields you want". In all other answers the proposed queries specifies the desired fields in the SELECT clause, except in mine, actually.

Also, in the question title says "... without writer's cramp". Well, what's the correct measure to identify a writer's cramp? My best effort would be to foresee a good SQL standard to this problem and compare with my answer. Actually, I think this "standard" could be something like SELECT * NOT IN ([col1], [col2], ...).

Now, I can see in both queries:

  • a list of undesired columns;
  • an IN clause;
  • a three characters clause - FOR and NOT;

It means that you need to write a bit more in my approach as you need a fake aggregation and the PIVOT clause... but it's really few characters more...

Tags:

Oracle

Plsql

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