I\'ve seen a number of people claim that you should specifically name each column you want in your select query.
Assuming I\'m going to use all of the columns anyway
If your application gets data with SELECT * and the table structure in the database is changed (say a column is removed), your application will fail in every place that you reference the missing field. If you instead include all the columns in your query, you application will break in the (hopefully) one place where you initially get the data, making the fix easier.
That being said, there are a number of situations in which SELECT * is desirable. One is a situation that I encounter all the time, where I need to replicate an entire table into another database (like SQL Server to DB2, for example). Another is an application written to display tables generically (i.e. without any knowledge of any particular table).