SQL Server : select columns not by name

Question

Is it possible in SQL Server 2008 to select columns not by their names, but in the order as they appear in the table?

The reason is that i want to select the first 5 oder 6 columns of a table, no matter what's the content, because it is possible that their names or the columns self can be changed or moved.

Answer 1

For the first 5 columns you can try this:

select column_name,ordinal_position
  from information_schema.columns
 where table_schema = ...
   and table_name = ...
   and ordinal_position <= 5

Hope this works now. Solution found here . Edit: Updated answer - old one only selected first 5 rows, not columns.