In the example above, the columns are State_PK, StateName I want ALL rows, ALL columns; name for the display value, key for the where clause in the next (and more important) query. The point was that care should be taken with the word "never". The old stand by "it depends" will likely be a more accurate statement. While I got the point of the original statement, it is likely to cause a very spirited debate because it is, in a very anal sense, an incorrect statement. I cannot count the number of times where I've seen such a response create barriers to solutions to real world problems because the statement was misunderstood by the receiver.

It was a word of caution to fellow database professionals and a reminder that we exist to provide a service and we support the needs of other people and other systems. We need to think about the unique challenges of each problem and apply our knowledge to create the best possible solution to that challenge. After all, without those people we wouldn't have the toys we have. 😉