A common SQL habit is to use SELECT * on a query, because it’s tedious to list all the columns you need. Plus, sometimes those columns may change over time, so why not just do things the easy way? But ...

You don't have to give up on creating dynamic queries just because you're using Entity Framework. Entity SQL and ObjectQuery will let you generate queries at runtime and still let you update your data ...

So much of modern programming is about string manipulation. Whether it’s parsing XML content, building HTML for the browser or trying to understand what the user just typed into that text entry field, ...