Question

I have a table which currently looks a bit like this-

CASEID  ¦  FORMNAME  ¦  NAME  ¦  VALUE

601554  ¦  CASEFORM  ¦  Mond  ¦  AAAA
601554  ¦  CASEFORM  ¦  Tues  ¦  BBBB
601554  ¦  CASEFORM  ¦  Wedn  ¦  CCCC
601554  ¦  CASEFORM  ¦  Thur  ¦  DDDD

I now want to create a new table in SQL that will copy the data and change the format of it entirely as follows-

CASEID  ¦  FORMNAME  ¦  Mond  ¦  Tues  ¦  Wedn  ¦  Thur

601554  ¦  CASEFORM  ¦  AAAA  ¦  BBBB  ¦  CCCC  ¦  DDDD

The original table has about 400 lines, so the new table is going to need 400 columns.

My SQL knowledge is certainly limited, but I can always blunder my way to a solution when I need one. In this case however I don’t even know where to begin. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

Start with this query:

create table NewTable(CASEID int,  FORMNAME varchar(255))
go

insert into NewTable select distinct caseid,formname from OldTable
go

select  distinct 'alter table NewTable add ' +[name]+ ' varchar(255)'  from oldtable

and then copy the results and run them.

Then run this query:

select distinct 'update NewTable set ' +Name+ ' = ''' + Value +''' where caseid = ' +cast(caseid as varchar(20))+
' and FORMNAME = '''+Formname+''''
from oldtable

and then copy the results and run them.

Edit: Added automated version:

create table NewTable(CASEID int,  FORMNAME varchar(255)) 
go 
insert into NewTable select distinct caseid,formname from OldTable 
go
DECLARE @query VARCHAR(max)
set @query = ''
select  @query = @query + 'alter table NewTable add ' +[name]+ ' varchar(255);'  from (select distinct name from oldtable )c
exec (@query)
set @query = ''
select @query = @query+ 'update NewTable set ' +Name+ ' = ''' + Value +''' where caseid = ' +cast(caseid as varchar(20))+ ' and FORMNAME = '''+Formname+'''' 
from  (select distinct  Name, Value, Caseid, FormName from OldTable)c
exec (@query)