Despite MSSQL 2000, MSSQL 2005 allows to insert SP output into a particular subset of columns independently if it is a table variable or a temporary table. I found it nice to use when you work with sparse tables and it generally gives more clarity to SP code.

-- create dummy procedure

IF OBJECT_ID ('Proc1') IS NOT NULL

DROP PROCEDURE Proc1

GO

CREATE PROCEDURE Proc1

AS

SELECT 1, 2

UNION

SELECT 2, 1

go

exec Proc1

go

-- table variable example

DECLARE @vartable TABLE (

col1INT

,col2VARCHAR(10)

,col3FLOAT

)

INSERT @vartable (col1, col2)

EXEC Proc1

SELECT * FROM @vartable

INSERT @vartable (col2, col3)

EXEC Proc1

SELECT * FROM @vartable

-- temp table example

CREATE TABLE #temptable (

col1INT

,col2VARCHAR(10)

,col3FLOAT

)

INSERT #temptable (col1, col2)

EXEC Proc1

SELECT * FROM #temptable

INSERT #temptable (col2, col3)

EXEC Proc1

SELECT * FROM #temptable

-- cleanup

DROP TABLE #temptable

DROP PROCEDURE Proc1

Cheers

Simone Gigli