Question

I need a function for all distinct values in my table in SQL Server.

For example, if my table looks like this:

field1   | field2   | ... | field8
---------+----------+-----+---------
valuef11 | valuef21 | ... | valuef81
valuef12 | valuef22 | ... | valuef82
etc...

Then I need to return a table with 2 fields as follows:

field1 valuef11
field1 valuef12
field1 valuef13
field2 valuef21
field2 valuef22
....
field8 valuef81
field8 valuef82
field8 valuef83
field8 valuef84

Answer 1

I think you are looking for this:

SELECT DISTINCT 'field1' AS fieldname, field1 FROM yourtable
UNION ALL
SELECT DISTINCT 'field2' AS fieldname, field2 FROM yourtable
UNION ALL
...
UNION ALL
SELECT DISTINCT 'field8' AS fieldname, field8 FROM yourtable

Note that this assumes that all fields have the same type.

In SQL Server 2005 or newer you could also use UNPIVOT:

SELECT DISTINCT fieldname, fieldvalue
FROM yourtable
UNPIVOT(fieldvalue FOR fieldname IN
   (field1, field2, ..., field8)
) AS unpvt;

Again, this assumes that all fields have the same type.