code: protected List appendListOfColumns(String[] columns, StringBuffer stmt)
      {
          ArrayList columnList = new ArrayList();
  
          for (int i = 0; i < columns.length; i++)
          {
              if (i > 0)
              {
                  stmt.append(",");
              }
              stmt.append(columns[i]);
              columnList.add(columns[i]);
          }
          return columnList;
  
      }
docs: Appends to the statement a comma separated list of column names.
  
  @param columns defines the columns to be selected (for reports)
  @return list of column names