Question

How can I move a column of dates like below.

User              Date
====              ====
001               2012/12/01 09:00
001               2012/12/01 11:00
001               2012/12/01 12:00
001               2012/12/01 13:00
001..             ...        

and list them like below.

User  date         time1   time2   time3  time4    time5  
001   2012/12/01   09:00   11:00   12:00  13:00    14:00   

Thanks Bluefeet for the solution. I tested the script and got the following result.

2   2012/11/04  09:00:00.000    NULL    NULL    NULL    NULL    NULL    NULL
2   2012/11/08  NULL    09:00:00.000    18:00:00.000    NULL    NULL    NULL    NULL
2   2012/11/09  NULL    NULL    NULL    09:00:00.000    18:00:00.000    NULL    NULL
2   2012/11/10  NULL    NULL    NULL    NULL    NULL    09:00:00.000    18:00:00.000

The time seems to skip to the last null column for the same user at the next date? is there a way for me to arrange them in order starting from the first column for the next date for the same user?

Answer 1

You did not specify what RDBMS you are using but you previously tagged questions with a sql server tag so I will assume that is the database.

You can perform this operation using the PIVOT function in SQL Server. There are two ways that you can do this either static where you hard-code all of the values or dynamic where the values are determined at run-time.

Static Pivot:

select *
from 
(
  select [user], convert(varchar(10), date, 111) date,
    right(convert(varchar(50), date, 121), 12) time
    , 'time'+cast(row_number() over(partition by [user], convert(varchar(10), date, 111) order by date) as varchar(10)) rn
  from yourtable
) src
pivot
(
  max(time)
  for rn in (time1, time2, time3, time4)
) piv

See SQL Fiddle with Demo

Dynamic Pivot:

DECLARE @cols AS NVARCHAR(MAX),
    @query  AS NVARCHAR(MAX)

select @cols = STUFF((SELECT distinct ',' + QUOTENAME('time'+cast(row_number() over(partition by [user], convert(varchar(10), date, 111) order by date) as varchar(10))) 
                    from yourtable
            FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
            ).value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)') 
        ,1,1,'')

set @query = 'SELECT [user], date,' + @cols + ' from 
             (
                select [user], convert(varchar(10), date, 111) date,
                  right(convert(varchar(50), date, 121), 12) time
                  , ''time''+cast(row_number() over(partition by [user], convert(varchar(10), date, 111) order by date) as varchar(10)) rn
                from yourtable
            ) x
            pivot 
            (
                max(time)
                for rn in (' + @cols + ')
            ) p '

execute(@query)

See SQL Fiddle with Demo

Aggregate/CASE version:

If for some reason you do not want to use the PIVOT function, then you can also use an aggregate function with a CASE statement.

select [user], date,
  max(case when rn = 1 then time end) Time1,
  max(case when rn = 2 then time end) Time2,
  max(case when rn = 3 then time end) Time3,
  max(case when rn = 4 then time end) Time4
from
(
  select [user], convert(varchar(10), date, 111) date,
    right(convert(varchar(50), date, 121), 12) time
    , row_number() over(partition by [user], convert(varchar(10), date, 111) order by date)) rn
  from yourtable
) src
group by [user], date

See SQL Fiddle with Demo

All three produce the same result:

| USER |       DATE |        TIME1 |        TIME2 |        TIME3 |        TIME4 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  001 | 2012/12/01 | 09:00:00.000 | 11:00:00.000 | 12:00:00.000 | 13:00:00.000 |
|  001 | 2012/12/02 | 09:00:00.000 | 11:00:00.000 | 12:00:00.000 | 13:00:00.000 |