SQL Server PIVOT help for dates - sql

Question

I am having a table that is having data dynamic.
A general example
A B C
04/05/2020 04/05/2020 9:00 04/05/2020 13:00
04/05/2020 04/05/2020 13:30 04/05/2020 17:05
I need to have the data in the same row like
A B C D E
04/05/2020 04/05/2020 9:00 04/05/2020 13:00 04/05/2020 13:30 04/05/2020 17:05
I tried to use PIVOT but that didn't helped me out
any suggestions?

Answer 1

Basically, what Marc said. Here is an example of what it should look like. The though part which is described in Marcs Link is how to make this dynamic as for the PIVOT function, the values need to be defined initially and cannot be dynamic:
CREATE TABLE dbo.Test(
A VARCHAR(10),
B VARCHAR(10),
C VARCHAR(10)
)
INSERT INTO [dbo].[Test]
( [A]
,[B]
,[C]
)
VALUES
(
'A' -- A - VARCHAR
,'B' -- B - VARCHAR
,'C' -- C - VARCHAR
),
(
'A' -- A - VARCHAR
,'B' -- B - VARCHAR
,'C' -- C - VARCHAR
);
SELECT [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9]
FROM (
SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY A) AS Id
FROM (
SELECT A, 'Col' AS X FROM dbo.Test
UNION ALL
SELECT B, 'Col' AS X FROM dbo.Test
UNION ALL
SELECT C, 'Col' AS X FROM dbo.[Test] tes
) AS Q
) AS P
PIVOT (MAX(A) FOR Id IN ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9])) AS Pvt

Answer 2

You first should get all your data on a single dataset:
with data as (
select A as value from MyTable
union
select B from MyTable
union
select C from MyTable
)
select value from data order by value
Once you have normalized your data, then you can use a generic solution for converting rows to columns.
Like this one : Efficiently convert rows to columns in sql server
It would look like :
-- Create the sample data
create table MyTable (A datetime, B datetime, C datetime)
insert into MyTable (A, B, C)
values ('04/05/2020', '04/05/2020 9:00', '04/05/2020 13:00'),
('04/05/2020', '04/05/2020 13:30', '04/05/2020 17:05')
-- Normalize the data
;
with data as (
select A as value from MyTable
union
select B from MyTable
union
select C from MyTable
)
select value
into #data
from data
order by value
-- Return rows as columns
DECLARE #cols AS NVARCHAR(MAX),
#query AS NVARCHAR(MAX)
select #cols = STUFF((SELECT ',' + QUOTENAME(value)
from #data
order by value
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
).value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)')
,1,1,'')
set #query = N'SELECT ' + #cols + N' from
(
select value
from #data
) x
pivot
(
max(value)
for value in (' + #cols + N')
) p '
exec sp_executesql #query;
drop table #data