OK, so let me summarize here (the other posts in this subthread are discussing the user interface, not the use cases, so I'll respond here).
There are two main use cases: 1) change the order of columns in "SELECT *" - display columns so that related ones grouped together (irrespectedly whether they were added later, etc.) - keep columns synced with COPY - requires user interface (ALTER TABLE _ ALTER COLUMN _ SET ORDER _) 2) optimization of physical order (efficient storage / tuple deforming) - more efficient order for storage (deforming) - may be done manually by reordering columns in CREATE TABLE - should be done automatically (no user interface required) - seems useful both for on-disk physical tuples, and virtual tuples Anything else? -- Tomas Vondra http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/ PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers