SQL Server 2005, turn columns into rows

Question

I am trying to turn a table 90 degrees: make columns rows. No PIVOT is allowed since PIVOT requires aggregate functions.

Example: I have a table with the columns:
ID int,
ISO char(2),
Text varchar(255).

So I have this:

ID ISO Text
-- --- ----
 1 DE  Auto
 2 EN  Car

I'd like to get the following:

ID EN  DE
-- --- ----
 1 Car Auto

How do you accomplish that?

Answer 1

This answer is really frantisek's, I'm just copying here to correct the mistake (I can't edit directly).

Basically, you use that solution, with a tweak:

SELECT 
    max(DE) as DE, max(EN) as EN 
FROM 
    test 
PIVOT (MAX([text]) FOR ISO in (DE,EN)) p

This will get the content into a single row. Also, it drops the ID, since it doesn't make sense if you want a single row (there is no logic to indicate what to do with it when combining into a single row).

Also, the assumption is made that the values in the ISO column are unique, otherwise, this will lose data due to the MAX aggregate.

Answer 2

I found the solution as the following:

SELECT 
    ID, DE, EN
FROM 
    TextTable 
PIVOT(MAX([text]) FOR ISO IN (DE,EN)) p

It's possible to use PIVOT with MAX aggregating function over the text.