SQL Server 2008 Vertical data to Horizontal - sql-server

Question

I apologize for submitting another question on this topic, but I've read through many of the answers on this and I can't seem to get it to work for me.
I have three tables I need to join and pull info on. One of the tables is only 3 columns and stores the data vertically. I would like to transpose that data to a horizontal format.
The data will look like this if I just join and pull:
SELECT
a.app_id,
b.field_id,
c.field_name,
b.field_value
FROM table1 a
JOIN table2 b ON a.app_id = b.app_id
JOIN table3 c ON b.field_id = c.field_id --(table3 is a lookup table for field names)
Result:
app_id | field_id | field_name | field_value
-----------------------------------------------------
1234 | 101 | First Name | Joe
1234 | 102 | Last Name | Smith
1234 | 105 | DOB | 10/15/72
1234 | 107 | Mailing Addr | PO BOX 1234
1234 | 110 | Zip | 12345
1239 | 101 | First Name | Bob
1239 | 102 | Last Name | Johnson
1239 | 105 | DOB | 12/01/78
1239 | 107 | Mailing Addr | 1234 N Star Ave
1239 | 110 | Zip | 12456
Instead, I would like it to look like this:
app_id | First Name | Last Name | DOB | Mailing Addr | Zip
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
1234 | Joe | Smith | 10/15/72 | PO BOX 1234 | 12345
1239 | Bob | Johnson | 12/01/78 | 1234 N Star Ave | 12456
In the past, I just resorted to looking up all the field_id's I needed in my data and created CASE statements for each one. The app the users are using contains data for multiple products, and each product contains different fields. Considering the number of products supported and the number of fields for each product (many, many more than the basic example I showed, above) it takes a long time to look them up and write out huge chunks of CASE statements.
I was wondering if there's some cheat-code out there to achieve what I need without having to look up the field_ids and writing things out. I know the PIVOT function is likely what I'm looking for, however, I can't seem to get it to work correctly.
Think you guys could help out?

Answer 1

You can use the PIVOT function to convert your rows of data into columns.
Your original query can be used to retrieve all the data, the only change I would make to it would be to exclude the column b.field_id because this will alter the final display of the result.
If you have a known list of field_name values that you want to turn into columns, then you can hard-code your query:
select app_id,
[First Name], [Last Name], [DOB],
[Mailing Addr], [Zip]
from
(
SELECT
a.app_id,
c.field_name,
b.field_value
FROM table1 a
INNER JOIN table2 b
ON a.app_id = b.app_id
INNER JOIN table3 c
ON b.field_id = c.field_id
) d
pivot
(
max(field_value)
for field_name in ([First Name], [Last Name], [DOB],
[Mailing Addr], [Zip])
) piv;
See SQL Fiddle with Demo.
But if you are going to have an unknown number of values for field_name, then you will need to implement dynamic SQL to get the result:
DECLARE #cols AS NVARCHAR(MAX),
#query AS NVARCHAR(MAX)
select #cols = STUFF((SELECT ',' + QUOTENAME(Field_name)
from Table3
group by field_name, Field_id
order by Field_id
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
).value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)')
,1,1,'')
set #query = 'SELECT app_id,' + #cols + '
from
(
SELECT
a.app_id,
c.field_name,
b.field_value
FROM table1 a
INNER JOIN table2 b
ON a.app_id = b.app_id
INNER JOIN table3 c
ON b.field_id = c.field_id
) x
pivot
(
max(field_value)
for field_name in (' + #cols + ')
) p '
execute sp_executesql #query;
See SQL Fiddle with Demo. Both of these this will give a result:
| APP_ID | FIRST NAME | LAST NAME | DOB | MAILING ADDR | ZIP |
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| 1234 | Joe | Smith | 10/15/72 | PO Box 1234 | 12345 |
| 1239 | Bob | Johnson | 12/01/78 | 1234 N Star Ave | 12456 |

Answer 2

Try this
SELECT
[app_id]
,MAX([First Name]) AS [First Name]
,MAX([Last Name]) AS [Last Name]
,MAX([DOB]) AS [DOB]
,MAX([Mailing Addr]) AS [Mailing Addr]
,MAX([Zip]) AS [Zip]
FROM Table1
PIVOT
(
MAX([field_value]) FOR [field_name] IN ([First Name],[Last Name],[DOB],[Mailing Addr],[Zip])
) T
GROUP BY [app_id]
SQL FIDDLE DEMO

Answer 3

bluefeet's answer was the right one for me, but I needed distinct on the column list:
DECLARE #cols AS NVARCHAR(MAX),
#query AS NVARCHAR(MAX)
select #cols = STUFF((SELECT Distinct ',' + QUOTENAME(Field_name)
from Table3
group by field_name, Field_id
order by ',' + QUOTENAME(Field_name)
FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
).value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)')
,1,1,'')
set #query = 'SELECT app_id,' + #cols + '
from
(
SELECT
a.app_id,
c.field_name,
b.field_value
FROM table1 a
INNER JOIN table2 b
ON a.app_id = b.app_id
INNER JOIN table3 c
ON b.field_id = c.field_id
) x
pivot
(
max(field_value)
for field_name in (' + #cols + ')
) p '
execute sp_executesql #query;

Answer 4

This would solve using group by and MAX function, instead of pivot:
SELECT PK_ID, MAX(PHONE) AS PHONE, MAX(MAIL) AS MAIL
FROM (
SELECT
PK_ID,
CASE
WHEN CONTACT_ALIAS.CONTACT_TYPE = 'COMPANY' THEN CONTACT_ALIAS.CONTACT_VALUE
END AS PHONE ,
CASE
WHEN CONTACT_ALIAS.CONTACT_TYPE = 'BUSINESS' THEN CONTACT_ALIAS.CONTACT_VALUE
END AS MAIL
FROM T_CONTACT_EMPLOYERS CONTACT_ALIAS
WHERE CONTACT_ALIAS.CONTACT_TYPE IN ('COMPANY' , 'BUSINESS')
) TEMP
GROUP BY PK_ID

Answer 5

USe of SQL Pivot
SELECT [Id], [FirstName], [LastName], [Email]
FROM
(
SELECT Id, Att_Id, Att_Value FROM VerticalTable
) as source
PIVOT
(
MAX(Att_Value) FOR Att_Id IN ([FirstName], [LastName], [Email])
) as target