Simple way to transpose columns and rows in SQL?

Question

There are several ways that you can transform this data. In your original post, you stated that PIVOT seems too complex for this scenario, but it can be applied very easily using both the UNPIVOT and PIVOT functions in SQL Server.

However, if you do not have access to those functions this can be replicated using UNION ALL to UNPIVOT and then an aggregate function with a CASE statement to PIVOT:

Create Table:

CREATE TABLE yourTable([color] varchar(5), [Paul] int, [John] int, [Tim] int, [Eric] int);

INSERT INTO yourTable
    ([color], [Paul], [John], [Tim], [Eric])
VALUES
    ('Red', 1, 5, 1, 3),
    ('Green', 8, 4, 3, 5),
    ('Blue', 2, 2, 9, 1);

Union All, Aggregate and CASE Version:

select name,
  sum(case when color = 'Red' then value else 0 end) Red,
  sum(case when color = 'Green' then value else 0 end) Green,
  sum(case when color = 'Blue' then value else 0 end) Blue
from
(
  select color, Paul value, 'Paul' name
  from yourTable
  union all
  select color, John value, 'John' name
  from yourTable
  union all
  select color, Tim value, 'Tim' name
  from yourTable
  union all
  select color, Eric value, 'Eric' name
  from yourTable
) src
group by name

See SQL Fiddle with Demo

The UNION ALL performs the UNPIVOT of the data by transforming the columns Paul, John, Tim, Eric into separate rows. Then you apply the aggregate function sum() with the case statement to get the new columns for each color.

Unpivot and Pivot Static Version:

Both the UNPIVOT and PIVOT functions in SQL server make this transformation much easier. If you know all of the values that you want to transform, you can hard-code them into a static version to get the result:

select name, [Red], [Green], [Blue]
from
(
  select color, name, value
  from yourtable
  unpivot
  (
    value for name in (Paul, John, Tim, Eric)
  ) unpiv
) src
pivot
(
  sum(value)
  for color in ([Red], [Green], [Blue])
) piv

See SQL Fiddle with Demo

The inner query with the UNPIVOT performs the same function as the UNION ALL. It takes the list of columns and turns it into rows, the PIVOT then performs the final transformation into columns.

Dynamic Pivot Version:

If you have an unknown number of columns (Paul, John, Tim, Eric in your example) and then an unknown number of colors to transform you can use dynamic sql to generate the list to UNPIVOT and then PIVOT:

DECLARE @colsUnpivot AS NVARCHAR(MAX),
    @query  AS NVARCHAR(MAX),
    @colsPivot as  NVARCHAR(MAX)

select @colsUnpivot = stuff((select ','+quotename(C.name)
         from sys.columns as C
         where C.object_id = object_id('yourtable') and
               C.name <> 'color'
         for xml path('')), 1, 1, '')

select @colsPivot = STUFF((SELECT  ',' 
                      + quotename(color)
                    from yourtable t
            FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
            ).value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)') 
        ,1,1,'')


set @query 
  = 'select name, '+@colsPivot+'
      from
      (
        select color, name, value
        from yourtable
        unpivot
        (
          value for name in ('+@colsUnpivot+')
        ) unpiv
      ) src
      pivot
      (
        sum(value)
        for color in ('+@colsPivot+')
      ) piv'

exec(@query)

See SQL Fiddle with Demo

The dynamic version queries both yourtable and then the sys.columns table to generate the list of items to UNPIVOT and PIVOT. This is then added to a query string to be executed. The plus of the dynamic version is if you have a changing list of colors and/or names this will generate the list at run-time.

All three queries will produce the same result:

| NAME | RED | GREEN | BLUE |
-----------------------------
| Eric |   3 |     5 |    1 |
| John |   5 |     4 |    2 |
| Paul |   1 |     8 |    2 |
|  Tim |   1 |     3 |    9 |

This normally requires you to know ALL the column AND row labels beforehand. As you can see in the query below, the labels are all listed in their entirely in both the UNPIVOT and the (re)PIVOT operations.

MS SQL Server 2012 Schema Setup:

create table tbl (
    color varchar(10), Paul int, John int, Tim int, Eric int);
insert tbl select 
    'Red' ,1 ,5 ,1 ,3 union all select
    'Green' ,8 ,4 ,3 ,5 union all select
    'Blue' ,2 ,2 ,9 ,1;

Query 1:

select *
from tbl
unpivot (value for name in ([Paul],[John],[Tim],[Eric])) up
pivot (max(value) for color in ([Red],[Green],[Blue])) p

Results:

| NAME | RED | GREEN | BLUE |
-----------------------------
| Eric |   3 |     5 |    1 |
| John |   5 |     4 |    2 |
| Paul |   1 |     8 |    2 |
|  Tim |   1 |     3 |    9 |

Additional Notes:

1. Given a table name, you can determine all the column names from sys.columns or FOR XML trickery using local-name().
2. You can also build up the list of distinct colors (or values for one column) using FOR XML.
3. The above can be combined into a dynamic sql batch to handle any table.

I'd like to point out few more solutions to transposing columns and rows in SQL.

The first one is - using CURSOR. Although the general consensus in the professional community is to stay away from SQL Server Cursors, there are still instances whereby the use of cursors is recommended. Anyway, Cursors present us with another option to transpose rows into columns.

• Vertical expansion

  Similar to the PIVOT, the cursor has the dynamic capability to append more rows as your dataset expands to include more policy numbers.

• Horizontal expansion

  Unlike the PIVOT, the cursor excels in this area as it is able to expand to include newly added document, without altering the script.

• Performance breakdown

  The major limitation of transposing rows into columns using CURSOR is a disadvantage that is linked to using cursors in general – they come at significant performance cost. This is because the Cursor generates a separate query for each FETCH NEXT operation.

Another solution of transposing rows into columns is by using XML.

The XML solution to transposing rows into columns is basically an optimal version of the PIVOT in that it addresses the dynamic column limitation.

The XML version of the script addresses this limitation by using a combination of XML Path, dynamic T-SQL and some built-in functions (i.e. STUFF, QUOTENAME).

• Vertical expansion

  Similar to the PIVOT and the Cursor, newly added policies are able to be retrieved in the XML version of the script without altering the original script.

• Horizontal expansion

  Unlike the PIVOT, newly added documents can be displayed without altering the script.

• Performance breakdown

  In terms of IO, the statistics of the XML version of the script is almost similar to the PIVOT – the only difference is that the XML has a second scan of dtTranspose table but this time from a logical read – data cache.

You can find some more about these solutions (including some actual T-SQL exmaples) in this article: https://www.sqlshack.com/multiple-options-to-transposing-rows-into-columns/

Based on this solution from bluefeet here is a stored procedure that uses dynamic sql to generate the transposed table. It requires that all the fields are numeric except for the transposed column (the column that will be the header in the resulting table):

/****** Object:  StoredProcedure [dbo].[SQLTranspose]    Script Date: 11/10/2015 7:08:02 PM ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
-- =============================================
-- Author:      Paco Zarate
-- Create date: 2015-11-10
-- Description: SQLTranspose dynamically changes a table to show rows as headers. It needs that all the values are numeric except for the field using for     transposing.
-- Parameters: @TableName - Table to transpose
--             @FieldNameTranspose - Column that will be the new headers
-- Usage: exec SQLTranspose <table>, <FieldToTranspose>
-- =============================================
ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[SQLTranspose] 
  -- Add the parameters for the stored procedure here
  @TableName NVarchar(MAX) = '', 
  @FieldNameTranspose NVarchar(MAX) = ''
AS
BEGIN
  -- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
  -- interfering with SELECT statements.
  SET NOCOUNT ON;

  DECLARE @colsUnpivot AS NVARCHAR(MAX),
  @query  AS NVARCHAR(MAX),
  @queryPivot  AS NVARCHAR(MAX),
  @colsPivot as  NVARCHAR(MAX),
  @columnToPivot as NVARCHAR(MAX),
  @tableToPivot as NVARCHAR(MAX), 
  @colsResult as xml

  select @tableToPivot = @TableName;
  select @columnToPivot = @FieldNameTranspose


  select @colsUnpivot = stuff((select ','+quotename(C.name)
       from sys.columns as C
       where C.object_id = object_id(@tableToPivot) and
             C.name <> @columnToPivot 
       for xml path('')), 1, 1, '')

  set @queryPivot = 'SELECT @colsResult = (SELECT  '','' 
                    + quotename('+@columnToPivot+')
                  from '+@tableToPivot+' t
                  where '+@columnToPivot+' <> ''''
          FOR XML PATH(''''), TYPE)'

  exec sp_executesql @queryPivot, N'@colsResult xml out', @colsResult out

  select @colsPivot = STUFF(@colsResult.value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)'),1,1,'')

  set @query 
    = 'select name, rowid, '+@colsPivot+'
        from
        (
          select '+@columnToPivot+' , name, value, ROW_NUMBER() over (partition by '+@columnToPivot+' order by '+@columnToPivot+') as rowid
          from '+@tableToPivot+'
          unpivot
          (
            value for name in ('+@colsUnpivot+')
          ) unpiv
        ) src
        pivot
        (
          sum(value)
          for '+@columnToPivot+' in ('+@colsPivot+')
        ) piv
        order by rowid'
  exec(@query)
END

You can test it with the table provided with this command:

exec SQLTranspose 'yourTable', 'color'