Displaying Columns as Rows in SQL Server 2005 - sql

Question

I have read dozens of solutions to similar transposition problems as the one I am about to propose but oddly none that exactly mirrors my issue. I am simply trying to flip my rows to columns in a simple dashboard type data set.
The data when pulled from various transaction tables looks like this:
DatePeriod PeriodNumberOverall Transactions Customers Visits
'Jan 2012' 1 100 50 150
'Feb 2012' 2 200 100 300
'Mar 2012' 3 300 200 600
and I want to be able to generate the following:
Jan 2012 Feb 2012 Mar 2012
Transactions 100 200 300
Customers 50 100 200
Visits 150 300 600
The metrics will be static (Transactions, Customers and Visits), but the date periods will be dynamic (IE - more added as months go by).
Again, I have ready many examples leveraging pivot, unpivot, store procedures, UNION ALLs, etc, but nothing where I am not doing any aggregating, just literally transposing the whole output. I have also found an easy way to do this in Visual Studio 2005 using a matrix with an embedded list, but I can't export the final output to excel which is a requirement. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

In order to get the result that you want you need to first UNPIVOT the data and then PIVOT theDatePeriod` Values.
The UNPIVOT will transform the multiple columns of Transactions, Customers and Visits into multiple rows. The other answers are using a UNION ALL to unpivot but SQL Server 2005 was the first year the UNPIVOT function was supported.
The query to unpivot the data is:
select dateperiod,
col, value
from transactions
unpivot
(
value for col in (Transactions, Customers, Visits)
) u
See Demo. This transforms your current columns into multiple rows, so the data looks like the following:
| DATEPERIOD | COL | VALUE |
-------------------------------------
| Jan 2012 | Transactions | 100 |
| Jan 2012 | Customers | 50 |
| Jan 2012 | Visits | 150 |
| Feb 2012 | Transactions | 200 |
Now, since the data is in rows, you can apply the PIVOT function to the DatePeriod column:
select col, [Jan 2012], [Feb 2012], [Mar 2012]
from
(
select dateperiod,
t.col, value, c.SortOrder
from
(
select dateperiod,
col, value
from transactions
unpivot
(
value for col in (Transactions, Customers, Visits)
) u
) t
inner join
(
select 'Transactions' col, 1 SortOrder
union all
select 'Customers' col, 2 SortOrder
union all
select 'Visits' col, 3 SortOrder
) c
on t.col = c.col
) d
pivot
(
sum(value)
for dateperiod in ([Jan 2012], [Feb 2012], [Mar 2012])
) piv
order by SortOrder;
See SQL Fiddle with Demo.
If you have an unknown number of date period's then you will use dynamic SQL:
DECLARE #cols AS NVARCHAR(MAX),
#query AS NVARCHAR(MAX)
select #cols = STUFF((SELECT ',' + QUOTENAME(dateperiod)
from transactions
group by dateperiod, PeriodNumberOverall
order by PeriodNumberOverall
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
).value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)')
,1,1,'')
set #query = 'SELECT col, ' + #cols + '
from
(
select dateperiod,
t.col, value, c.SortOrder
from
(
select dateperiod,
col, value
from transactions
unpivot
(
value for col in (Transactions, Customers, Visits)
) u
) t
inner join
(
select ''Transactions'' col, 1 SortOrder
union all
select ''Customers'' col, 2 SortOrder
union all
select ''Visits'' col, 3 SortOrder
) c
on t.col = c.col
) x
pivot
(
sum(value)
for dateperiod in (' + #cols + ')
) p
order by SortOrder'
execute(#query)
See SQL Fiddle with Demo. Both will give the result:
| COL | JAN 2012 | FEB 2012 | MAR 2012 |
-------------------------------------------------
| Transactions | 100 | 200 | 300 |
| Customers | 50 | 100 | 200 |
| Visits | 150 | 300 | 600 |

Answer 2

You need to dynamically create a SQL statement with PIVOT and APPLY operators on the fly and then run that command. If your metrics static(Transactions, Customers and Visits), hence we can use CROSS APPLY operator with VALUES As a Table Source.
For SQL Server2008+
DECLARE #cols nvarchar( max),
#query nvarchar(max)
SELECT #cols =
STUFF((SELECT ',' + QUOTENAME(t.DatePeriod) AS ColName
FROM dbo.test62 t
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value ('.', 'nvarchar(max)'), 1, 1, '')
SET #query =
'SELECT *
FROM (
SELECT t.DatePeriod, COALESCE(o.Transactions, o.Customers, o.Visits) AS PvtVals, o.PvtColumns, o.OrderColumns
FROM dbo.test62 t CROSS APPLY (
VALUES(t.Transactions, NULL, NULL, ''Transaction'', 1),
(NULL, t.Customers, NULL, ''Customers'', 2),
(NULL, NULL, t.Visits, ''Visits'', 3)
) o (Transactions, Customers, Visits, PvtColumns, OrderColumns)
) p
PIVOT
(
MAX(PvtVals) FOR DatePeriod IN (' + #cols + ')
) AS pvt
ORDER BY pvt.OrderColumns '
EXEC(#query)
Result:
PvtColumns Jan 2012 Fed 2012 Mar 2012
Transaction 100 200 300
Customers 50 100 200
Visits 150 300 600
Demo on SQLFiddle
For SQL Server 2005
DECLARE #cols nvarchar( max),
#query nvarchar(max)
SELECT #cols =
STUFF((SELECT ',' + QUOTENAME(t.DatePeriod) AS ColName
FROM dbo.test62 t
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE).value ('.', 'nvarchar(max)'), 1, 1, '')
SET #query =
'SELECT *
FROM (
SELECT t.DatePeriod, COALESCE(o.Transactions, o.Customers, o.Visits) AS PvtVals, o.PvtColumns, o.OrderColumns
FROM dbo.test62 t CROSS APPLY (
SELECT t.Transactions, NULL, NULL, ''Transaction'', 1
UNION ALL
SELECT NULL, t.Customers, NULL, ''Customers'', 2
UNION ALL
SELECT NULL, NULL, t.Visits, ''Visits'', 3
) o (Transactions, Customers, Visits, PvtColumns, OrderColumns)
) p
PIVOT
(
MAX(PvtVals) FOR DatePeriod IN (' + #cols + ')
) AS pvt
ORDER BY pvt.OrderColumns'
EXEC(#query)

Answer 3

If you can know how many different date period in advance, then you can use fixed query like following:
;with CTE_UNIONTable
as
(
select [DatePeriod],[PeriodNumberOverall],[Transactions] as [value], 'Transactions' as subType from table1
UNION ALL
select [DatePeriod],[PeriodNumberOverall],[Customers] as [value], 'Customers' as subType from table1
UNION ALL
select [DatePeriod],[PeriodNumberOverall],[Visits] as [value], 'Visits' as subType from table1
), CTE_MiddleResult
as
(
select * from CTE_UNIONTable
pivot
(
max(value)
for DatePeriod in ([Jan 2012],[Feb 2012],[Mar 2012])
) as P
)
select SubType, max([Jan 2012]) as [Jan 2012] ,max([Feb 2012]) as [Feb 2012], max([Mar 2012]) as [Feb 2012]
from CTE_MiddleResult
group by SubType
SQL FIDDLE DEMO
If how many date period is unpredictable, then #Alexander already gave the solution, the following code is just a second opinion, instead of using APPLY, using UNION ALL
DECLARE #cols nvarchar( max),
#query nvarchar (max),
#selective nvarchar(max)
SELECT #cols =
STUFF((SELECT ',' + QUOTENAME(t.DatePeriod) AS ColName
FROM table1 t
FOR XML PATH( ''), TYPE).value ('.', 'nvarchar(max)'),1,1,'')
SELECT #selective =
STUFF((SELECT ',MAX(' + QUOTENAME(t.DatePeriod) +') as ' + QUOTENAME(t.DatePeriod) AS ColName
FROM table1 t
FOR XML PATH( ''), TYPE).value ('.', 'nvarchar(max)'),1,1,'')
set #query = '
;with CTE_UNIONTable
as
(
select [DatePeriod],[PeriodNumberOverall],[Transactions] as [value], ''Transactions'' as subType from table1
UNION ALL
select [DatePeriod],[PeriodNumberOverall],[Customers] as [value], ''Customers'' as subType from table1
UNION ALL
select [DatePeriod],[PeriodNumberOverall],[Visits] as [value], ''Visits'' as subType from table1
), CTE_MiddleResult
as
(
select * from CTE_UNIONTable
pivot
(
max(value)
for DatePeriod in ('+#cols+')
) as P
)
select SubType,' + #selective + '
from CTE_MiddleResult
group by SubType'
exec(#query)
SQL FIDDLE DEMO