PostgreSQL convert columns to rows? Transpose? - sql

Question

I have a PostgreSQL function (or table) which gives me the following output:
Sl.no username Designation salary etc..
1 A XYZ 10000 ...
2 B RTS 50000 ...
3 C QWE 20000 ...
4 D HGD 34343 ...
Now I want the Output as below:
Sl.no 1 2 3 4 ...
Username A B C D ...
Designation XYZ RTS QWE HGD ...
Salary 10000 50000 20000 34343 ...
How to do this?

Answer 1

SELECT
unnest(array['Sl.no', 'username', 'Designation','salary']) AS "Columns",
unnest(array[Sl.no, username, value3Count,salary]) AS "Values"
FROM view_name
ORDER BY "Columns"
Reference : convertingColumnsToRows

Answer 2

Basing my answer on a table of the form:
CREATE TABLE tbl (
sl_no int
, username text
, designation text
, salary int
);
Each row results in a new column to return. With a dynamic return type like this, it's hardly possible to make this completely dynamic with a single call to the database. Demonstrating solutions with two steps:
Generate query
Execute generated query
Generally, this is limited by the maximum number of columns a table can hold. So not an option for tables with more than 1600 rows (or fewer). Details:
What is the maximum number of columns in a PostgreSQL select query
Postgres 9.4+
Dynamic solution with crosstab()
Use the first one you can. Beats the rest.
SELECT 'SELECT *
FROM crosstab(
$ct$SELECT u.attnum, t.rn, u.val
FROM (SELECT row_number() OVER () AS rn, * FROM '
|| attrelid::regclass || ') t
, unnest(ARRAY[' || string_agg(quote_ident(attname)
|| '::text', ',') || '])
WITH ORDINALITY u(val, attnum)
ORDER BY 1, 2$ct$
) t (attnum bigint, '
|| (SELECT string_agg('r'|| rn ||' text', ', ')
FROM (SELECT row_number() OVER () AS rn FROM tbl) t)
|| ')' AS sql
FROM pg_attribute
WHERE attrelid = 'tbl'::regclass
AND attnum > 0
AND NOT attisdropped
GROUP BY attrelid;
Operating with attnum instead of actual column names. Simpler and faster. Join the result to pg_attribute once more or integrate column names like in the pg 9.3 example.
Generates a query of the form:
SELECT *
FROM crosstab(
$ct$
SELECT u.attnum, t.rn, u.val
FROM (SELECT row_number() OVER () AS rn, * FROM tbl) t
, unnest(ARRAY[sl_no::text,username::text,designation::text,salary::text]) WITH ORDINALITY u(val, attnum)
ORDER BY 1, 2$ct$
) t (attnum bigint, r1 text, r2 text, r3 text, r4 text);
This uses a whole range of advanced features. Just too much to explain.
Simple solution with unnest()
One unnest() can now take multiple arrays to unnest in parallel.
SELECT 'SELECT * FROM unnest(
''{sl_no, username, designation, salary}''::text[]
, ' || string_agg(quote_literal(ARRAY[sl_no::text, username::text, designation::text, salary::text])
|| '::text[]', E'\n, ')
|| E') \n AS t(col,' || string_agg('row' || sl_no, ',') || ')' AS sql
FROM tbl;
Result:
SELECT * FROM unnest(
'{sl_no, username, designation, salary}'::text[]
,'{10,Joe,Music,1234}'::text[]
,'{11,Bob,Movie,2345}'::text[]
,'{12,Dave,Theatre,2356}'::text[])
AS t(col,row1,row2,row3,row4);
db<>fiddle here
Old sqlfiddle
Postgres 9.3 or older
Dynamic solution with crosstab()
Completely dynamic, works for any table. Provide the table name in two places:
SELECT 'SELECT *
FROM crosstab(
''SELECT unnest(''' || quote_literal(array_agg(attname))
|| '''::text[]) AS col
, row_number() OVER ()
, unnest(ARRAY[' || string_agg(quote_ident(attname)
|| '::text', ',') || ']) AS val
FROM ' || attrelid::regclass || '
ORDER BY generate_series(1,' || count(*) || '), 2''
) t (col text, '
|| (SELECT string_agg('r'|| rn ||' text', ',')
FROM (SELECT row_number() OVER () AS rn FROM tbl) t)
|| ')' AS sql
FROM pg_attribute
WHERE attrelid = 'tbl'::regclass
AND attnum > 0
AND NOT attisdropped
GROUP BY attrelid;
Could be wrapped into a function with a single parameter ...
Generates a query of the form:
SELECT *
FROM crosstab(
'SELECT unnest(''{sl_no,username,designation,salary}''::text[]) AS col
, row_number() OVER ()
, unnest(ARRAY[sl_no::text,username::text,designation::text,salary::text]) AS val
FROM tbl
ORDER BY generate_series(1,4), 2'
) t (col text, r1 text,r2 text,r3 text,r4 text);
Produces the desired result:
col r1 r2 r3 r4
-----------------------------------
sl_no 1 2 3 4
username A B C D
designation XYZ RTS QWE HGD
salary 10000 50000 20000 34343
Simple solution with unnest()
SELECT 'SELECT unnest(''{sl_no, username, designation, salary}''::text[] AS col)
, ' || string_agg('unnest('
|| quote_literal(ARRAY[sl_no::text, username::text, designation::text, salary::text])
|| '::text[]) AS row' || sl_no, E'\n , ') AS sql
FROM tbl;
Slow for tables with more than a couple of columns.
Generates a query of the form:
SELECT unnest('{sl_no, username, designation, salary}'::text[]) AS col
, unnest('{10,Joe,Music,1234}'::text[]) AS row1
, unnest('{11,Bob,Movie,2345}'::text[]) AS row2
, unnest('{12,Dave,Theatre,2356}'::text[]) AS row3
, unnest('{4,D,HGD,34343}'::text[]) AS row4
Same result.

Answer 3

If (like me) you were needing this information from a bash script, note there is a simple command-line switch for psql to tell it to output table columns as rows:
psql mydbname -x -A -F= -c "SELECT * FROM foo WHERE id=123"
The -x option is the key to getting psql to output columns as rows.

Answer 4

I have a simpler approach than Erwin pointed above, that worked for me with Postgres (and I think that it should work with all major relational databases whose support SQL standard)
You can use simply UNION instead of crosstab:
SELECT text 'a' AS "text" UNION SELECT 'b';
text
------
a
b
(2 rows)
Of course that depends on the case in which you are going to apply this. Considering that you know beforehand what fields you need, you can take this approach even for querying different tables. I.e.:
SELECT 'My first metric' as name, count(*) as total from first_table UNION
SELECT 'My second metric' as name, count(*) as total from second_table
name | Total
------------------|--------
My first metric | 10
My second metric | 20
(2 rows)
It's a more maintainable approach, IMHO. Look at this page for more information: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/typeconv-union-case.html

Answer 5

There is no proper way to do this in plain SQL or PL/pgSQL.
It will be way better to do this in the application, that gets the data from the DB.