Question

I currently have the following SQL Query:

SELECT
  con_Content,
  cot_Name,
  pag_Name
FROM 
  [Page]
  inner join [Content] on con_PageID = pag_ID
  inner join [ContentType] on cot_ID = con_TypeID
WHERE 
  pag_URL = 'tour'

that returns multiple rows like the screenshot below:

https://i.stack.imgur.com/2GbHi.gif

i really need this query to return 1 row with the additional column names to be ‘LeftColumn’, ‘RightColumn’, ‘MainContent’ and the value of those columns to be the ‘con_content’ .

My SQL is not very good right now.

Answer 1

As mentioned by @Donnie, it sounds like you want to do a pivot. If this is for SQL Server 2005 or later:

with Page (con_Content, cot_Name, pag_Name)
as
(
    select '<p>this could be the left content</p>', 'LeftColumn', 'Tour'
    union
    select '<p>this could be the right content</p>', 'RightColumn', 'Tour'
    union
    select '<p>main content</p>', 'MainContent', 'Tour'
)
select pag_Name, LeftColumn, RightColumn, MainContent
from [Page]
pivot
(
    min(con_Content)
    for cot_Name in (LeftColumn, RightColumn, MainContent)
) as PivotTable
where pag_Name = 'Tour'

and if this is not SQL Server 2005+:

/* with cte defined as above */
select pag_Name, 
    max(case cot_Name when 'LeftColumn' then con_Content else '' end) LeftColumn,
    max(case cot_Name when 'RightColumn' then con_Content else '' end) RightColumn,
    max(case cot_Name when 'MainContent' then con_Content else '' end) MainContent
from [Page]
where pag_Name = 'Tour'
group by pag_Name

Edit

If there is no corresponding cot_Name value for a field in the pivot list, the query will still execute and return null for that field.

For example, try this:

with Page (con_Content, cot_Name, pag_Name)
as
(
    select '<p>this could be the left content</p>', 'LeftColumn', 'Tour'
    union
    select '<p>main content</p>', 'MainContent', 'Tour'
)
select pag_Name, LeftColumn, RightColumn, MainContent
from [Page]
pivot
(
    min(con_Content)
    for cot_Name in (LeftColumn, RightColumn, MainContent)
) as PivotTable
where pag_Name = 'Tour'

So in your case, you could include every value you are interested in, and just check for null to see whether the pag_Name has any content for that cot_Name:

/* using cte as defined above */
select pag_Name, LeftColumn, RightColumn, MainContent, MoreContent_1, MoreContent_2 /* etc. */
from [Page]
pivot
(
    min(con_Content)
    for cot_Name in (LeftColumn, RightColumn, MainContent, MoreContent_1, MoreContent_2)
) as PivotTable
where pag_Name = 'Tour'