convert vertical sql result into horizontal output - sql

Question

I have a table, #t with 16 rows:
id int
description varchar(60)
balance decimal(6,2)
I need the description & balance data, and "select description, balance from #t order by id" will do the job. But ideally, I could do with showing the results horizontally rather than vertically.
Now I know I can build a new table with 16 columns and populate the balance for each such column using much dynamic sql, but, I'm also sure that this can be done a good deal more easily using pivot or something like that - though I dont really understand how.
Can someone please enlighted me?
Thanks
John

Answer 1

Assuming you are using SQL Server you can implement the PIVOT function to convert the rows of data into columns. The basic syntax will be:
select *
from
(
select description, balance
from yourtable
) d
pivot
(
sum(balance)
for description in ([desc1], desc2]) -- replace this with the names of your descriptions
) piv;
Of course if you have an unknown number of description values, then you will need to use dynamic SQL:
DECLARE #cols AS NVARCHAR(MAX),
#query AS NVARCHAR(MAX)
select #cols = STUFF((SELECT distinct ',' + QUOTENAME(description)
from yourtable
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
).value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)')
,1,1,'')
set #query = 'SELECT ' + #cols + '
from
(
select description, balance
from yourtable
) x
pivot
(
sum(balance)
for description in (' + #cols + ')
) p '
execute sp_executesql #query