Re: Adding a New Column Specifically In a Table

Think of it this way...

A person has many properties... age, nationality, eye_color, weight, etc...
Does it maks sense to put these properties in a particular "order" ?

Neither does a relational DB require them to be in any order. The fact that "select *" consistently shows them in one particular order is just a behavioral artifact of the software. It's not intentional, or guaranteed.

-----Original Message-----
From: pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org [mailto:pgsql-general-owner(at)postgresql(dot)org] On Behalf Of Peter Geoghegan
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 8:03 AM
To: rod(at)iol(dot)ie
Cc: Thom Brown; Carlos Mennens; pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: [GENERAL] Adding a New Column Specifically In a Table

On 14 October 2010 12:07, Raymond O'Donnell <rod(at)iol(dot)ie> wrote:
> Indeed - as others have said, depending on a specific column ordering in the
> database is asking for trouble.

Yes, it certainly is (in fact, 1NF says that there should be no order
to the columns), but it still annoys me that I cannot re-order columns
on purely aesthetic grounds.

--
Regards,
Peter Geoghegan