SQL Server 2005, turn columns into rows

Question

I am trying to turn a table 90 degrees: make columns rows. No PIVOT is allowed since PIVOT requires aggregate functions.

Example: I have a table with the columns:
ID int,
ISO char(2),
Text varchar(255).

So I have this:

ID ISO Text
-- --- ----
 1 DE  Auto
 2 EN  Car

I'd like to get the following:

ID EN  DE
-- --- ----
 1 Car Auto

How do you accomplish that?

Answer 1

Query without a PIVOT even though other answers prove you can use a PIVOT :)

SELECT
    MAX(DE.Text) AS DE,
    MAX(EN.Text) AS EN  
FROM TextTable AS TT
LEFT JOIN TextTable AS DE
    ON DE.ID = TT.ID
    AND DE.ISO = 'DE'
LEFT JOIN TextTable AS EN
    ON EN.ID = TT.ID
    AND EN.ISO = 'EN'

Answer 2

If you try this solution and get a syntax error try setting the compatability mode of your database via

ALTER DATABASE myDatabase SET COMPATIBILITY_LEVEL = 90;

This will set the compatability to SQLServer 2005 and the above queries will execute w/o a syntax error.

Answer 3

I found the solution as the following:

SELECT 
    ID, DE, EN
FROM 
    TextTable 
PIVOT(MAX([text]) FOR ISO IN (DE,EN)) p

It's possible to use PIVOT with MAX aggregating function over the text.

Answer 4

Since you explicitly asked for a non-pivot solution: this should work, if you know which ISOs you will have in the rows. I called the table "Test".

declare @temp table ([ID] int, [de] varchar(255), [en] varchar(255)) -- add ISOs if necessary

INSERT @temp 
SELECT distinct [ID], '', '' from Test -- ADD '' for other ISOs if necessary

DECLARE c CURSOR read_only 
FOR SELECT [ID], [ISO], [Text] from test

DECLARE  @ID int, @ISO char(2), @Text varchar(255)
OPEN c

FETCH NEXT FROM c INTO @ID, @ISO, @Text
WHILE (@@fetch_status <> -1)
BEGIN
    IF (@@fetch_status <> -2)
    BEGIN
        UPDATE  @temp
        SET     [DE] = case when @ISO = 'DE' then @Text else [de] end,
            [EN] = case when @ISO = 'EN' then @Text else [en] end
                    -- add ISOs if necessary
        WHERE   [ID] = @ID
    END
    FETCH NEXT FROM c INTO @ID, @ISO, @Text
END

CLOSE c
DEALLOCATE c

SELECT * FROM @temp

Answer 5

select 
   t.num_claim_no,
   rtrim (xmlagg (xmlelement (e, t.txt_remarks ||'@'|| t.dat_update_date || '  ,  ')).extract ('//text()'), ',') Remarks,
   rtrim (xmlagg (xmlelement (e, t.num_update_no || ' , ')).extract ('//text()'), ',') SrlNo
from 
   gc_clm_gen_info t
   where t.txt_remarks is not null
  group by 
   t.num_claim_no
;

Answer 6

This answer is really frantisek's, I'm just copying here to correct the mistake (I can't edit directly).

Basically, you use that solution, with a tweak:

SELECT 
    max(DE) as DE, max(EN) as EN 
FROM 
    test 
PIVOT (MAX([text]) FOR ISO in (DE,EN)) p

This will get the content into a single row. Also, it drops the ID, since it doesn't make sense if you want a single row (there is no logic to indicate what to do with it when combining into a single row).

Also, the assumption is made that the values in the ISO column are unique, otherwise, this will lose data due to the MAX aggregate.