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

Question

Is it possible, in PLSQL, to select all of the fields in a table except for 1 or 2, without having to specify the fields you want?

Example, the employee table has the fields:

• id
• firstname
• lastname
• hobbies

Is it still possible to write a query similar to

select * from employee 

while leaving the field hobbies without with having to write something like this?

select id, firstname, lastname from employee 

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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;