SQL make rows into columns, PIVOT maybe - sql-server

Question

I have an MS SQL Server with a database for an E-commerce storefront.
This is some of the tables I have:
Products:
Id | Name | Price
ProductAttributeTypes: -Color, Size, Format
Id | Name
ProductAttributes: --Red, Green, 12x20 cm, Mirrored
Id | ProductAttributeTypeId | Name
Orders:
Id | DateCreated
OrderItems:
Id | OrderId | ProductId
OrderItemsToProductAttributes: --Relates an OrderItem to its product and selected attributes
OrderItemId | ProductAttributeId | ProductAttributeTypeId | ProductId
I want to select from the OrderItems table, to see which items have been purchased.
To see what kind of variants (ProductAtriibutes) was selected, I want those as "dynamic" columns in the resultset.
So the resultset should look like this:
OrderItemId | ProductId | ProductName | Color | Size | Format
1234 123 Mount. Bike Red 2x20 Mirror
I don't know if PIVOT is the thing to use? I'm not using any aggregate functions, so I guess not...
Is there any SQL Ninjas that can help me out?

Answer 1

If you are using sql2005 or 2008 you can use the pivot command. See here.
In the example below the OrderAttributes set will look like:
OrderItemId AttName AttValue
----- ------ -----
100 Color Red
100 Size Small
101 Color Blue
101 Size Small
102 Color Red
102 Size Small
103 Color Blue
103 Size Large
The final results after the PIVOT will be:
OrderItemId Size Color
----- ------ -----
100 Small Red
101 Small Blue
102 Small Red
103 Large Blue
WITH OrderAttributes(OrderItemId, AttName, AttValue)
AS (
SELECT
OrderItemId,
pat.Name AS AttName,
pa.Name AS AttValue
FROM OrderItemsToProductAttributes x
INNER JOIN ProductAttributes pa
ON x.ProductAttributeId = pa.id
INNER JOIN ProductAttributeTypes pat
ON pa.ProductAttributeTypeId = pat.Id
)
SELECT AttrPivot.OrderItemId,
[Size] AS [Size],
[Color] AS Color
FROM OrderAttributes
PIVOT (
MAX([AttValue])
FOR [AttName] IN ([Color],[Size])
) AS AttrPivot
ORDER BY AttrPivot.OrderItemId
There is a way to dynamically build the columns (i.e. the Color and Size columns), as can be seen here. Make sure your database compatibility level on your database is set to something greater than 2000 or you will get strange errors.

Answer 2

In the past, I've created physical tables for read purposes only. The structure you have above is GREAT for storage, but terrible for reporting.
So you could do the following:
Write a script (that is scheduled nightly) or a trigger (on data change) that does the following tasks:
First, you would dynamically go through each Product and build a static table "Product_[ProductName]"
Then go through each ProductAttributeTypes for each product and create/update/delete a physical column on the corresponding Product table.
Then, fill that table with the proper values based on OrderItemsToProductAttributes and ProductAttributes
This is just a rough idea. Make sure you are storing OrderID in the "Static"/"Flattened" tables. And make sure you do everything else you need to do. But after that, you should be able to start pulling from those flattened tables to get the data you need.

Answer 3

Pivot is your best bet, but what I did for reporting purposes, and to make it work well with SSIS is to create a view, which then has this query:
SELECT [InputSetID], [InputSetName], CAST([470] AS int) AS [Created By], CAST([480] AS datetime) AS [Created], CAST([479] AS int) AS [Updated By], CAST([460] AS datetime)
AS [Updated]
FROM (SELECT st.InputSetID, st.InputSetName, avt.InputSetID AS avtID, avt.AttributeID, avt.Value
FROM app.InputSetAttributeValue avt JOIN
app.InputSets st ON avt.InputSetID = st.InputSetID) AS p PIVOT (MAX(Value) FOR AttributeID IN ([470], [480], [479], [460])) AS pvt
Then I can just interact with the view, but, I have a trigger on the table that any new dynamic attributes must be added to, which recreates this view, so I can assume the view is always correct.