mysql pivot table with string values

Question

I have a table with just two columns like this

mysql> select * from stuff_table;
+------+-------+
| name | stuff |
+------+-------+
| John | shoes |
| Jim  | bag   |
| Ely  | book  |
| Tom  | bag   |
| Will | shoes |
| Pitt | book  |
| Dean | bag   |
| Luke | bag   |
+------+-------+

and I tried with many solutions I found like

select distinct
max(case when stuff='shoes' then name else name is null) end as shoes,
max(case when stuff='bag' then name else name is null end) as bag,
max(case when stuff='book' then name else name is null end) as book
from stuff_table;

but I just got this

+-------+------+------+
| shoes | bag  | book |
+-------+------+------+
| Will  | Tom  | Pitt |
+-------+------+------+

Instead, I want to get this

+-------+------+------+
| shoes | bag  | book |
+-------+------+------+
| John  | Jim  | Ely  |
| Will  | Tom  | Pitt |
| NULL  | Dean | NULL |
| NULL  | Luke | NULL |
+-------+------+------+

I have tried with sum(case...) or if(case..) or group by too but it doesn't work. Is there any mysql query to get such that table? Kindly help. Thank you.

Answer 1

You dont need to use else and You have a end outside of max function :

select distinct
max(case when stuff='shoes' then name end ) as shoes,
max(case when stuff='bag' then name  end) as bag,
max(case when stuff='book' then name  end) as book
from stuff_table;

Answer 2

Depending on the version of mysql you are using, here's one approach establishing a row_number per group, then using conditional aggregation grouped by that row number:

select 
    rn, 
    max(case when stuff = 'bag' then name end) 'bag',
    max(case when stuff = 'book' then name end) 'book',
    max(case when stuff = 'shoes' then name end) 'shoes' 
from (
  select *, row_number() over (partition by stuff order by name) rn
  from stuff_table
) t
group by rn

• Fiddle Demo

---

Since you are using an older version of mysql, you'll need to use user-defined variables to establish the row number. The rest then works the same. Here's an example:

select 
    rn, 
    max(case when stuff = 'bag' then name end) 'bag',
    max(case when stuff = 'book' then name end) 'book',
    max(case when stuff = 'shoes' then name end) 'shoes' 
from (
  select *, 
  ( case stuff 
         when @curStuff
         then @curRow := @curRow + 1 
         else @curRow := 1 and @curStuff := stuff 
   end
  ) + 1 AS rn
  from stuff_table, (select @curRow := 0, @curStuff := '') r
  order by stuff
) t
group by rn

• More Fiddle