wild cards for table names in a MySQL select statement

This question is born of sheer laziness, but an answer may be lurking out there. We have a MySQL table that lists prices. There are 47 columns that begin with "WS" (for wholesale prices), and 47 corresponding columns that begin with "RT" (for retail prices). What we would like to do to avoid writing them all out everyplace, is to select all fields starting with "WS" or all fields starting with "RT". It's not a big deal, but it would be quite convenient if we could use some sort of wild card in the SELECT statement. We've tried "SELECT lsp_size_price.WS%" and "SELECT lsp_size_price.WS*" (two logical choices) but they only give us syntax errors. If anyone could help us out, it would be appreciated. Michael Hall Database Engineer Prairie Fire Web Design mike@prairiefirewebdesign.com