Spot on. This a very common misuse of checksums. In many cases, like this one, there is really no performance advantage because it doesn't reduce I/O. Unless you get paid...

I'm sorry if my example was too abstract, but it really doesn't matter. The point is that if the syntax is allowed it should work in a predictable manner, or...

If you can't think of a case where it is sensible to use SELECT *, then I suspect that your experience is rather narrow. As Alex pointed out, there are...

Good article - this could have saved me a few hours and quite a bit of head scratching a while back. But you are all being way too kind. THIS...