PIVOT in sql 2005 - sql-server

Question

I need to pivot one column (Numbers column).
example need this data:
a 1
a 2
b 3
b 4
c 5
d 6
d 7
d 8
d 9
e 10
e 11
e 12
e 13
e 14
Look like this
a 1 2
b 3 4
c 5
d 6 7 8 9
e 10 11 12 13 14
any help would be greatly appreciated...

Answer 1

Using ROW_NUMBER(), PIVOT and some dynamic SQL (but no cursor necessary) :
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[stackoverflow_198716](
[code] [varchar](1) NOT NULL,
[number] [int] NOT NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]
DECLARE #sql AS varchar(max)
DECLARE #pivot_list AS varchar(max) -- Leave NULL for COALESCE technique
DECLARE #select_list AS varchar(max) -- Leave NULL for COALESCE technique
SELECT #pivot_list = COALESCE(#pivot_list + ', ', '') + '[' + CONVERT(varchar, PIVOT_CODE) + ']'
,#select_list = COALESCE(#select_list + ', ', '') + '[' + CONVERT(varchar, PIVOT_CODE) + '] AS [col_' + CONVERT(varchar, PIVOT_CODE) + ']'
FROM (
SELECT DISTINCT PIVOT_CODE
FROM (
SELECT code, number, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY code ORDER BY number) AS PIVOT_CODE
FROM stackoverflow_198716
) AS rows
) AS PIVOT_CODES
SET #sql = '
;WITH p AS (
SELECT code, number, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY code ORDER BY number) AS PIVOT_CODE
FROM stackoverflow_198716
)
SELECT code, ' + #select_list + '
FROM p
PIVOT (
MIN(number)
FOR PIVOT_CODE IN (
' + #pivot_list + '
)
) AS pvt
'
PRINT #sql
EXEC (#sql)

Answer 2

Just because I wanted to get some more experience with CTEs, I came up with the following:
WITH CTE(CTEstring, CTEids, CTElast_id)
AS
(
SELECT string, CAST(id AS VARCHAR(1000)), id
FROM dbo.Test_Pivot TP1
WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM dbo.Test_Pivot TP2 WHERE TP2.string = TP1.string AND TP2.id < TP1.id)
UNION ALL
SELECT CTEstring, CAST(CTEids + ' ' + CAST(TP.id AS VARCHAR) AS VARCHAR(1000)), TP.id
FROM dbo.Test_Pivot TP
INNER JOIN CTE ON
CTE.CTEstring = TP.string
WHERE
TP.id > CTE.CTElast_id AND
NOT EXISTS (SELECT * FROM dbo.Test_Pivot WHERE string = CTE.CTEstring AND id > CTE.CTElast_id AND id < TP.id)
)
SELECT
t1.CTEstring, t1.CTEids
FROM CTE t1
INNER JOIN (SELECT CTEstring, MAX(LEN(CTEids)) AS max_len_ids FROM CTE GROUP BY CTEstring) SQ ON SQ.CTEstring = t1.CTEstring AND SQ.max_len_ids = LEN(t1.CTEids)
ORDER BY CTEstring
GO
It might need some tweaking, but it worked with your example

Answer 3

The coalesce function could also be used here, similar to other questions that have been asked about concatenating data.
How to create a SQL Server function to "join" multiple rows from a subquery into a single delimited field?

Answer 4

This related question should have the answer you need: SQL Server: Examples of PIVOTing String data
A Matrix control in SSRS has dynamic columns, if this data is bound for a report anyways then you could use that. Otherwise you'll have to create a sql sproc that generates the sql like in the exaamples dynamicly and then executes it.

Answer 5

I'm not sure that what you're doing is really possible (or at least practical) in SQL - I'm not sure, because I'm still not exactly sure what you want to do.
You could build that pivot table in your client application, for example with:
select distinct Letter from MyTable
to get the list of letters, and then use a parameterized query inside a loop:
select Number from MyTable where Letter=:letter
to get the list of numbers for each letter.