Question

Trying to find some simple SQL Server PIVOT examples. Most of the examples that I have found involve counting or summing up numbers. I just want to pivot some string data. For example, I have a query returning the following.

Action1 VIEW   Action1 EDIT   Action2 VIEW   Action3 VIEW   Action3 EDIT   

I would like to use PIVOT (if even possible) to make the results like so:

Action1 VIEW EDIT   Action2 VIEW NULL   Action3 VIEW EDIT   

Is this even possible with the PIVOT functionality?

Answer 1

Remember that the MAX aggregate function will work on text as well as numbers. This query will only require the table to be scanned once.

SELECT Action,        MAX( CASE data WHEN 'View' THEN data ELSE '' END ) ViewCol,         MAX( CASE data WHEN 'Edit' THEN data ELSE '' END ) EditCol  FROM t  GROUP BY Action