I think you are after something like this where you can pass in a comma-seperated list of column names
Private Function GenerateQuery(ByVal columnNames As String) As String
' columnNames in the following format 'column1,column2,column3'
Dim lstColumnNames As String() = Split(columnNames, ",")
Dim strSQL As New StringBuilder
strSQL.Append("SELECT ")
For intColNumber As Integer = 0 To lstColumnNames.GetUpperBound(0)
strSQL.Append("[")
strSQL.Append(lstColumnNames(intColNumber))
strSQL.Append("]")
If intColNumber < lstColumnNames.GetUpperBound(0) Then
strSQL.Append(", ")
End If
Next
strSQL.Append(" FROM People ")
Return strSQL.ToString
End Function
You can use it like this: SqlCommand.CommandText = GenerateQuery("column1,column2,column3")
The column names are wrapped in [] symbols so you don't have to worry about reserved words causing the database to error.