One row per column with column name - sql

background
I am trying to create an SSRS report which will run select * on a table passed in as a parameter and display all the data from that table. As I understand it, I can't use a table for this. I want to use a pivot table to achieve this.
select * from #table will return something like this (from the adventureworks DB)
I want to display the date in this format:
Question
How do I achieve this? I looked at using PIVOT/UNPIVOT, but all the examples I've seen use static column names and aggregates.
I won't know the column names at design time (or run time), I'm assuming I will need column headers like 'table name', 'value1', 'value2' etc?
Limitations
I won't have access to create stored procedures. Ideally, the report should be able to be run entirely from SSRS without having to create new tables etc.
Performance is not a concern.
Edit
Editing to add some clarity. The column names in the example above are only an example. The #table parameter could be any table, column names won't be know at design time. The column names could be col1, col2, or name, address... etc.

You can do this with a normal tablix, with a column group on BusinessEntityID
Create a normal tablix.
Remove the row group (group only)
Insert a new parent column group, grouped by BusinessEntityID
Delete the top row (row only)
Add each of the row titles in, as per your suggested output
Add each of the values in the second column

Related

How to add column to an existing table and calculate the value

Table info:
I want to add new column and calculated the different of the alarmTime column with this code:
ALTER TABLE [DIALinkDataCenter].[dbo].[DIAL_deviceHistoryAlarm]
ADD dif AS (DATEDIFF(HOUR, LAG((alarmTime)) OVER (ORDER BY (alarmTime)), (alarmTime)));
How to add the calculation on the table? Because always there's error like this:
Windowed functions can only appear in the SELECT or ORDER BY clauses.
You are using the syntax for a generated virtual column that shows a calculated value (ADD columnname AS expression).
This, however, only works on values found in the same row. You cannot have a generated column that looks at other rows.
If you consider now to create a normal column and fill it with calculated values, this is something you shouldn't do. Don't store values redundantly. You can always get the difference in an ad-hoc query. If you store this redundantly instead, you will have to consider this in every insert, update, and delete. And if at some time you find rows where the difference doesn't match the time values, which column holds the correct value then and which the incorrect one? alarmtime or dif? You won't be able to tell.
What you can do instead is create a view for convenience:
create view v_dial_devicehistoryalarm as
select
dha.*,
datediff(hour, lag(alarmtime) over (order by alarmtime), alarmtime) as dif
from dial_devicehistoryalarm dha;
Demo: https://dbfiddle.uk/?rdbms=sqlserver_2019&fiddle=b7f9b5eef33e72955c7f135952ef55b5
Remember though, that your view will probably read and sort the whole table everytime you access it. If you query only a certain time range, it will be faster hence to calculate the differences in your query instead.

How can I use record content from one table to update another, without a join option?

I need to update values in a column in a specific table that exists in all our databases, but do not know the name of the column as it is user-generated.
I have two tables: one of them with user-generated columns tab_Case. In this table there is a column attachment that I need to update if the following condition applies: WHERE attachment = '0' (if true then the value needs to be changed to NULL).
In its simplest form the update query would look something like this:
UPDATE tab_Case
SET attachment = 'NULL'
WHERE attachment = '0'
This table is used in all our databases, so I need to write a query general enough to be usable across all of them.
The problem is that as the table uses user-generated columns, I have no way of knowing what the exact name is of concerned column-type, and exactly how many of those columns exist in the table.
I can, however, find out the type of the column by looking it up in another table tbl_itemPart inner joined with tbl_ValueType, like this:
SELECT ip.DbReference, ip.DbTableName, vt.ValueDescription
FROM tbl_itemPart ip
INNER JOIN tbl_ValueTypes vt ON ip.ValueTypeId = vt.ValuetypeId
WHERE vt.ValueDescription = 'file'
AND ip.DbTableName = 'tab_Case'
The columns I need are always of type 'file' and as the tab_Case table is referenced in tbl_ItemPart it is easy to find out 1) if any columns of type 'file' exist in this table, and 2) when true, what their respective names are.
So great, now I know the names of the columns that I need to potentially update. But, this is where I get lost: how do I use that information in my update query?
How do I write a script that first checks the tbl_itemPart for existence of any columns in tab_Case of type ' file', then retrieves the actual values (= names of those columns) from the DbReference column in tbl_itemPart and then finally uses those values in the update query for tab_Case?
Remember that this scripts needs to automatically do this for each of our databases, so I do not want to look up column names manually per database and then adjust my script accordingly for each of the databases.
I am very new to programming, and may be missing something very obvious, but so far I haven't been able to find a solution, or any relevant information to help me on my way.

how can I link rows of a SQL table for some columns but not others?

I have a table of values in excel that I want to put into sql as a lookup table. the table looks like this:
the sql table looks like this:
having this in SQL, I now want to never use the excel file ever again.
I also need the ability to change the parameters, but some of them in the excel file were linked by merging the cells and thereby shared the same value, if it changed for one it changed for all.
for example: when I change Parameter B for Product 1, I need it to change it for Products 2, 3, 4, and 5 because they share the same cell in the excel table. And if I change parameter A for Product 2, It only changes for product 2 and 3. I am looking for a SQL Query solution. I have the ability to change the table structure as well.
Here goes my example query:
Update [Table] Set [Parameter_A] = '{new_parameter_tag}'
Where [product] = '{selected_product_tag}'
except I want to have the Where include all the rows that share the same cell from the excel table.
I want to be able to update the SQL table for multiple products at a time based on if they share the same cell for that parameter in the excel file.
here is my initial guess at an answer:
Select [{Parameter}],[Product],[Extra_column]
From [Table]
Where [Product] = '{selected_product}'
this returns one row and [Extra_column] that contains a grouping number shared by others in the same cell grouping. this then gets stored as {Extra_column}. then:
Update [Table] Set [{Parameter}] = '{new_parameter_value}'
Where [product] = '{selected_product}' Or [Extra_column] = '{Extra_Column}'
this requires two queries and also means that i need twice as many columns as i had before. I am looking for something a little more elegant.
This is SQL Server 2012 and the {} indicate a value that I am passing in form a script.
I ended up doing something similar to what I had above, the user enters the group they want to edit (it's pretty easy to pick out which one you want when viewing the table) as:
Update [table]
Set [{Parameter}]={NewValue}
Where [Extra_Column] = '{Extra_Column}'
I had to add three columns for the grouping indexes but over 43 parameters that doesn't add much to my table size. I did not take into account the fact that if I change a single parameter for a single product that would remove it from the "group" essentially for just that parameter, and later I would overwrite the changed value if I do a group change for that parameter. I could add in a check to only change values that match within that group but either way the user will have to be smart about what they do. luckily, they can see the table before they change it.

Swapping columns in a table to match formatting of another table prior to row insertion

I want to swap columns within Visual Fox Pro 9 in table_1 before inserting its rows into table_2 so as to avoid data losses caused by datatype variations. I tried these two options based on other solutions on stackoverflow, but I get syntax error messages for both command inputs. The name field is of datatype = character(5)and it needs to be after the subdir field.
ALTER table "f:\csp" modify COLUMN name character(5) after subdir
ALTER table "f:\csp" change COLUMN name name character(5) after subdir
I attempted these commands based on solutions here:
How to move columns in a MySQL table?
You never need to change the column order, and you never should rely on column order to do something.
For inserting into another table from this one you could simply select the columns in the order you desired (and their column names do not even need to be the same in the case of "insert ... select ... "). ie:
insert into table_2 (subdir, name) ;
select subdir, name from table_1
Another way is to use the xBase commands like:
select table_2
append from table_1
In the case of latter, VFP would do the match on column names.
All in all, relying on column ordering is dangerous. If you really want to do that, then you can still do, in a number of ways. One of them is to select all data into a temp table, recreate the table in the order you want and fill back from temp (might not be as easy as it sounds if there are existing dependencies such as referential integrity - also you need to recreate the indexes).

SQL Query for filtering columns returned

I want to return columns based on some meta data in an other table. i.e. i have my table which contains 10 columns, and another table which contains those columns denormalise with metadata to do with them.
i.e.
Table - Car:
columns - Make,Model,Colour
and another table called "Flags" which has a row for each of the above columns and each row has a column for "IsSearchable" and "ShowOnGrid" - that sort of thing.
The query i want is one which will return all columns from the cars table that are flagged in the "Flags" table as "ShowInGrid"
----EDIT
Apologise, I should have stated that this is on SQL Server 2008.
Also, I dont want to have to physically state the columns which i would like to return, i.e. If i add a column to the car table, then add it into the Flags table and declare it to be searchable, I don't want to have to physically state in the SQL Query that i want to return that column, i want it to automatically pull through.
You need to use dynamic SQL; this can easily be done with a stored procedure.
Something like this might work:
Select
D.CarID,
Case D.ShowMake When True Then D.Make Else NULL END AS Make
...
From
(Select
C.CarID, C.Make, C.Model, C.Colour, F.IsSearchable, F.ShowOnGrid, F.ShowMake
From
Cars C
Inner Join
Flags F
On C.CarID = F.CarID) D
I didn't write in all the case statements and don't know how many flags you're working, but you can give it a try. It would require to filter on null values in your application. If you actually want the columns omitted on the basis of the Flag column value the other answer and comment are both right on. Either Dynamic SQL or build your query outside in another language first.