How Do I Use PIVOT On This Data:? - sql

Question

I have a SQL Server table that looks like this:
RESOURCE | DESCRIPTION | VALUE
Test A Name | Resource A-xyz
Test A | Height | 20
Test A | Unit | ft
Test A | Location | Site 1
Test B | Volume | 30
Test C | Width | 10
Test C | Unit | in
I would like to get it into this format:
RESOURCE | Name | Height | Unit | Location | Volume | Width
Test A | Resource A-xyz | 20 | ft | Site 1 | |
Test B | | | | | 30 |
Test C | | | in | | | 10
One of the issues that I have is that there is no set pattern for description; for example, resource "Test B" might have all of the same descriptions as "Test A", while "Test C", might be missing some, and "Test D" might have a totally different set.
So far Google is suggesting that I want to use a pivot table, but I am still not sure how to do that with the above data.

Answer 1

The resulting column list is based on the ordering you provide within the PIVOT:
SELECT *
FROM Table1
PIVOT(MAX(VALUE) FOR DESCRIPTION IN (Name,Height,Unit,Location,Volume,Width))p
Demo: SQL Fiddle
If you have changing values for DESCRIPTION it's worthwhile to build this query dynamically, there are plenty of good examples for 'dynamic pivot' to be found.

Answer 2

try this code:
SELECT resource,Name,Height,Unit,Location,Volume,Width
FROM
#T1 AS SourceTable
PIVOT
(
max(value)
FOR description IN ([Name],[Height],[Unit],[Location],[Volume],[Width])
) AS PivotTable
ORDER BY 1

Answer 3

If you don't want to hardcode the columns and want to generate same view on the fly, you can use this. This will generate dynamic pivot
CREATE TABLE demo
(
RESOURCE VARCHAR(100),
DESCRIPTION VARCHAR(100), VALUE VARCHAR(100)
)
INSERT INTO demo VALUES
('Test A' , 'Name' , 'Resource A-xyz')
,('Test A' , 'Height' , '20')
,('Test A' , 'Unit' , 'ft')
,('Test A' , 'Location' , 'Site 1')
,('Test B' , 'Volume' , '30')
,('Test C' , 'Width' , '10')
,('Test C' , 'Unit' , 'in')
SELECT DISTINCT DESCRIPTION INTO #tbl FROM demo
//Get list of values to be pivoted
DECLARE #var NVARCHAR(1000)=''
SELECT #var = #var +', ' + DESCRIPTION FROM #tbl
SELECT #var = SUBSTRING(#var, 2, LEN(#var))
SELECT #var
DECLARE #query NVARCHAR(2000) = 'SELECT * FROM demo PIVOT(MAX(VALUE) FOR DESCRIPTION IN ('+ #var + '))p'
EXEC sp_executesql #query

Answer 4

In the end, I did the following:
Selected all distinct descriptions (more than 70!).
Created a table that had resource and every single distinct description as fields
Populated resource column distinct resource names
Ran a series of
updates to populate remaining columns for each distinct resource
name.
For example
CREATE TABLE #tb1
(
[RESOURCE] varchar(100),
[FIELD1] varchar(100),
[FIELD2] varchar(50),
.
.
.
[LAST FIELD] varchar(50),
)
INSERT INTO #tb1 (RESOURCE)
SELECT DISTINCT RESOURCE FROM tb2
ORDER BY Resource ASC
UPDATE #tb1 SET [FIELD1] = (SELECT VALUE FROM tb2 WHERE Resource = #tb1.Resource and Property = [FIELD1])
.
.
.
UPDATE #tb1 SET [LAST FIELD] = (SELECT VALUE FROM tb2 WHERE Resource = #tb1.Resource and Property = [LAST FIELD])