Pivoting without aggregation

Question

I'm trying to pivot without aggregation, and running into a bit of a wall.

Here's the sample T-SQL I'm trying to get to work:

declare @optionalFields table (ParentId int, Name nvarchar(50), Value nvarchar(50));
insert into @optionalFields values (1, 'Field1', 'Foo');
insert into @optionalFields values (1, 'Field2', 'Bar');
insert into @optionalFields values (1, 'Field3', '42');
insert into @optionalFields values (2, 'Field1', 'Bar');
insert into @optionalFields values (2, 'Field2', 'Foo');
insert into @optionalFields values (2, 'Field3', '24');

declare @data table (Id int, Name nvarchar(50));
insert into @data values (1, 'Test record 1');
insert into @data values (2, 'Test record 2');

declare @joined table (Id int, Name nvarchar(50), OptionalFieldName nvarchar(50), OptionalFieldValue nvarchar(50));
insert into @joined
select 
     data.Id
    ,data.Name
    ,opt.Name
    ,opt.Value
from @data data
    inner join @optionalFields opt on data.Id = opt.ParentId

declare @cols as nvarchar(max) = 
    stuff((select distinct ',' + quotename(OptionalFieldName) from @joined for xml path(''), type).value('.', 'nvarchar(max)'), 1, 1, '');

select * into #tmp from @joined
-- just to see that it's returning the expected values (it does)
select
     Id
    ,Name
    ,OptionalFieldName
    ,OptionalFieldValue
    ,row_number() over (partition by Id order by Id) RN 
from #tmp -- this is the FROM clause in the below dynamic-sql query

declare @query as nvarchar(max) = '
    select Id, Name, ' + @cols + '
    from (select Id, Name, OptionalFieldName, OptionalFieldValue, row_number() over (partition by Id order by Id) RN from #tmp) src 
    pivot (max(OptionalFieldName) for RN in (' + @cols + ')) pvt';

execute(@query);
drop table #tmp;

SSMS is giving me 2 errors:

Msg 8114, Level 16, State 1, Line 4 Error converting data type nvarchar to bigint.

Msg 473, Level 16, State 1, Line 4 The incorrect value "Field1" is supplied in the PIVOT operator.

The "debug" select statement is returning this:

3 rows per

The article (link above) seemed very promising, however I can't seem to be able to get it to work. What am I doing wrong? Or is this article outright wrong and what I'm trying to do is impossble?

I've seen a number of similar SO questions, but either they involved all-numeric fields that could "just work" with aggregation, or they involved known columns that could be implemented as simple joins - I don't know what OptionalFieldName values I'm going to be selecting, and the OptionalFieldValue values are strings that simply can't be aggregated, at least AFAIK.

Taryn · Accepted Answer

I'm a bit confused on why you are trying to trick this using row_number(). Even though you have string values, you can still aggregate it - you just need to use max or min to get the result.

I'd always recommend trying to write your query with hard-coded values first, especially when using PIVOT before even attempting to use dynamic SQL. I'm unsure why you can't just write the query this way:

select Id, Name, Field1, Field2, Field3
from 
(
  select
     Id
    ,Name
    ,OptionalFieldName
    ,OptionalFieldValue
  from #tmp
) d
pivot
(
  max(OptionalFieldValue)
  for OptionalFieldName in (Field1, Field2, Field3)
) piv;

See a Demo.

Then if you really need dynamic SQL, you would just write it:

declare @optionalFields table (ParentId int, Name nvarchar(50), Value nvarchar(50));
insert into @optionalFields values (1, 'Field1', 'Foo');
insert into @optionalFields values (1, 'Field2', 'Bar');
insert into @optionalFields values (1, 'Field3', '42');
insert into @optionalFields values (2, 'Field1', 'Bar');
insert into @optionalFields values (2, 'Field2', 'Foo');
insert into @optionalFields values (2, 'Field3', '24');

declare @data table (Id int, Name nvarchar(50));
insert into @data values (1, 'Test record 1');
insert into @data values (2, 'Test record 2');

declare @joined table (Id int, Name nvarchar(50), OptionalFieldName nvarchar(50), OptionalFieldValue nvarchar(50));
insert into @joined
select 
     data.Id
    ,data.Name
    ,opt.Name
    ,opt.Value
from @data data
    inner join @optionalFields opt on data.Id = opt.ParentId

declare @cols as nvarchar(max);
set @cols = stuff((select distinct ',' + quotename(OptionalFieldName) 
                   from @joined
                   for xml path(''), type).value('.', 'nvarchar(max)'), 1, 1, '');

select * into #tmp from @joined

DECLARE @query  AS NVARCHAR(MAX)

set @query = 'SELECT Id, Name,' + @cols + ' 
            from 
             (
                select Id
                  ,Name
                  ,OptionalFieldName
                  ,OptionalFieldValue
                from #tmp
            ) x
            pivot 
            (
                max(OptionalFieldValue)
                for OptionalFieldName in (' + @cols + ')
            ) p '

execute(@query);

See Demo. Both versions appear to give the result that you have requested.

Pivoting without aggregation

Answers (2)

EDIT: This answer is here only to show another way to accomplish this pivoting. The answer from @bluefeet is the best solution!

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