Can you duplicate a row without knowing the schema in MySQL? [duplicate]

Question

A great way to duplicate a row in MySQL is to use INSERT INTO ... SELECT FROM syntax.

For example:

INSERT INTO tblExample (col1, col2, col3)
SELECT col1, col2, col3 FROM tblExample WHERE pkey = 1234;

This is easy and straightforward, but from a code maintenance standpoint this is one more statement to keep track of if there are any schema changes. Suppose I add an additional column to the tblExample table, col4; now I have to remember to go back and update this SQL statement in my code. If I fail to do so, then I've just introduced a bug.

With this in mind, is there an easy to way to copy the whole row, whatever the schema may be, except for the primary key?

Answer 1

Very much against best practices you can do the following:

INSERT INTO myTable
SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE thisField = "abcd"