How do I create a wide table in SQL server 2016? - sql

Question

With this code(*), the creation of a wide table in SQL keeps me sending this:
Msg 1702, Level 16, State 1, Line 11
CREATE TABLE failed because column '2010/12/01' in table 'PriceToBookFinalI' exceeds the maximum of 1024 columns.
USE [Style]
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[PriceToBookFinalI]
(DocID int PRIMARY KEY,
[2006/12/29][Money],
[2007/01/01][Money],
...
SpecialPurposeColumns XML COLUMN_SET FOR ALL_SPARSE_COLUMNS);
GO
(2614 columns)
Looking for a good hint !
Here is the background set of data I want to import to my wide table

Answer 1

The solution for this is to normalize your design. Even if you could fit it into the 1024 limit, your design is not a good idea. For example, what if you wanted to know the average amount a DocID changed per each month. That would be a nightmare to write in this model.
Try this instead.
CREATE TABLE dbo.PriceToBookFinalI (
DocID INT PRIMARY KEY,
SpecialPurposeColumns XML COLUMN_SET FOR ALL_SPARSE_COLUMNS
);
CREATE TABLE dbo.PriceToBookFinalMoney (
DocID INT,
DocDate DATE,
DocAmount MONEY,
CONSTRAINT PK_PriceToBookFinalMoney
PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED
(
DocID,
DocDate
)
);
You can easily join the table with the SpecialPurposeColumns to the table with the dates and amounts for each DocID. You can still pivot the dates if desired into the format you provided above. Having the date as a value in a column gives you much more flexibility how you use the data, better performance, and naturally handles more dates.

Answer 2

Normalise it, allow for the columning as part of your query:
Create table Price (DocID INT primary key,
DocRef Varchar(30), -- the values from your [DATES] column
DocDate DATE,
DocValue MONEY);

Answer 3

Create your table with three columns: ID, Date, Amount. Each ID will have multiple rows in the table (for each date there's an amount value for).

Answer 4

There is a column count limitation in SQL server:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143432.aspx
Columns per nonwide table 1,024
Columns per wide table 30,000
You can use "Wide table", where is Sparse columns - column sets. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc280521.aspx
BUT - table will have limitation - 8,060 bytes per row. So, most of your columns should have no data.
So - the problem is in your design. Looks like, months should be as rows, not columns. Or maybe better would be some other structure of table. It can not be guessed without seeing the data structure in application.