SQL select join: is it possible to prefix all columns as 'prefix.*'?

Question

I\'m wondering if this is possible in SQL. Say you have two tables A and B, and you do a select on table A and join on table B:

SELECT a.*, b.* FROM TABLE_A a         


        

Answer 1

There is no SQL standard for this.

However With code generation (either on demand as the tables are created or altered or at runtime), you can do this quite easily:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[stackoverflow_329931_a](
    [id] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [col2] [nchar](10) NULL,
    [col3] [nchar](10) NULL,
    [col4] [nchar](10) NULL,
 CONSTRAINT [PK_stackoverflow_329931_a] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [id] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[stackoverflow_329931_b](
    [id] [int] IDENTITY(1,1) NOT NULL,
    [col2] [nchar](10) NULL,
    [col3] [nchar](10) NULL,
    [col4] [nchar](10) NULL,
 CONSTRAINT [PK_stackoverflow_329931_b] PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED 
(
    [id] ASC
)WITH (PAD_INDEX  = OFF, STATISTICS_NORECOMPUTE  = OFF, IGNORE_DUP_KEY = OFF, ALLOW_ROW_LOCKS  = ON, ALLOW_PAGE_LOCKS  = ON) ON [PRIMARY]
) ON [PRIMARY]

DECLARE @table1_name AS varchar(255)
DECLARE @table1_prefix AS varchar(255)
DECLARE @table2_name AS varchar(255)
DECLARE @table2_prefix AS varchar(255)
DECLARE @join_condition AS varchar(255)
SET @table1_name = 'stackoverflow_329931_a'
SET @table1_prefix = 'a_'
SET @table2_name = 'stackoverflow_329931_b'
SET @table2_prefix = 'b_'
SET @join_condition = 'a.[id] = b.[id]'

DECLARE @CRLF AS varchar(2)
SET @CRLF = CHAR(13) + CHAR(10)

DECLARE @a_columnlist AS varchar(MAX)
DECLARE @b_columnlist AS varchar(MAX)
DECLARE @sql AS varchar(MAX)

SELECT @a_columnlist = COALESCE(@a_columnlist + @CRLF + ',', '') + 'a.[' + COLUMN_NAME + '] AS [' + @table1_prefix + COLUMN_NAME + ']'
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = @table1_name
ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION

SELECT @b_columnlist = COALESCE(@b_columnlist + @CRLF + ',', '') + 'b.[' + COLUMN_NAME + '] AS [' + @table2_prefix + COLUMN_NAME + ']'
FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
WHERE TABLE_NAME = @table2_name
ORDER BY ORDINAL_POSITION

SET @sql = 'SELECT ' + @a_columnlist + '
,' + @b_columnlist + '
FROM [' + @table1_name + '] AS a
INNER JOIN [' + @table2_name + '] AS b
ON (' + @join_condition + ')'

PRINT @sql
-- EXEC (@sql)