SQL Results Of Multi-Value Transposed To 1 Row ("Flat File")

  • Got a request for some information and to have 1 row per order. The request includes the inks used on each order, which there may be 1 to 7 inks. Is there a technique to get multi-values into the same row?

    Example (Typical Results):

    Order / InkID

    ------------

    1234 / 001

    1234 / 107

    2133 / 222

    3144 / 184

    3144 / 187

    3144 / 327

    3144 / 217

    Would like:

    1234 / 001 / 007

    2133 / 222

    3144 / 184 / 187 / 327 / 217

    [font="Verdana"]"The Road To Success Is Always Under Construction."[/font]

  • This is called a PIVOT. Jeff wrote a couple of great articles about this very topic.

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/[/url]

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/[/url]

    _______________________________________________________________

    Need help? Help us help you.

    Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

    Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.

    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/

  • Hi Sean,

    Thanks for the reply. This isn't a Pivot situation. There is no column/field to determine which column it is to be assigned to. Quick analogy: 2 Tables: (1) Parents and (2) Children. The Parents' table contains a column ParentID, and the Childrens table has 2 columns - ParentID, ChildsName. If the data were something like the following in the Childrens table:

    ParentID / Childsname

    001 / Tom

    001 / Mary

    001 / Jeff

    002 / Jim

    003 / Susan

    003 / Beth

    The desired results would be:

    001 / Tom / Mary / Jeff

    002 / Jim

    003 / Susan / Beth

    Hope this clarifies the data.

    [font="Verdana"]"The Road To Success Is Always Under Construction."[/font]

  • Does something like this get you closer?

    Notice I created ddl and sample data so we know we are all on the same page.

    create table #data

    (

    ParentID int,

    ChildName varchar(25)

    )

    insert #data

    select 1, 'Tom'

    union all

    select 1, 'Mary'

    union all

    select 1, 'Jeff'

    union all

    select 2, 'Jim'

    union all

    select 3, 'Susan'

    union all

    select 3, 'Beth'

    select ParentID, STUFF

    (

    (

    select ' ' + ChildName

    from #data d2

    where d1.ParentID = d2.ParentID

    Order by d2.ChildName

    FOR XML PATH('')

    ) ,1, 1, ' '

    )

    from #data d1

    group by ParentID

    select * from #data

    drop table #data

    _______________________________________________________________

    Need help? Help us help you.

    Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

    Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.

    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/

  • Hi Sean,

    Thanks for continuing to help me out. I'm working on it, in between other tasks.

    1. It looks like we can't split the results into separate columns, but, are going to concatenate into a string.

    2. The finished product to the requester will be an Excel (2007) file. I will:

    2a) Copy/paste results into the Excel file.

    2b) Run the column thru "Text To Columns" functionality to get the desired end result.

    2*) This is a LOT faster than what I did on the earlier results: Copy the Inks (when more than 1 row/order) and Paste Special > Transpose columns into extra columns for the transposed Inks.

    2*) And LOT is an understatement - the previous results took about 40 minutes to convert the multiple rows into single rows, this will take less than a minute.

    So, your solution will work for me.

    Of course, the database I am actually working with isn't as straight forward as what I posted. I worked on the technique as its own query - It worked!:

    select SPEC_NO, STUFF

    (

    ( select '|' + ink_desc

    from spec_prt_info d2

    left JOIN INK_CST_F icf on icf.INK_CODE = d2.INK_CODE

    where d2.SPEC_NO = d1.SPEC_NO

    for XML path('')

    ) ,1 ,1, ' '

    ) as InkList

    from spec_prt_info d1

    group by spec_no

    The next step will be to integrate it into the main query, (the query that produces multiple rows because there may be one or more inks per order) Lines 4&5 will be modified with the STUFF technique:

    select ORDER_NO, CUST_IDENT, BLANK_LEN, BLANK_WID, DIM_A, DIM_B, DIM_C, COLOR_DESC, inks.INK_DESC, ops.MACH_DESCR, orders.PLT_NO

    from ORDERS

    left join SPECS on SPECS.SPEC_NO = ORDERS.SPEC_NO

    left join ( select SPEC_NO, INK_DESC from SPEC_PRT_INFO spi left JOIN INK_CST_F icf on icf.INK_CODE = spi.INK_CODE

    where INK_TYPE = 'C' ) inks on inks.SPEC_NO = SPECS.SPEC_NO

    left join ( select spec_no, operations.MACH_NO, MACH_DESCR from OPERATIONS

    left join MACHINES on MACHINES.MACH_NO = OPERATIONS.MACH_NO

    where operations.MACH_NO in (240,241,245,286,288,290,291,295,300)) ops on ops.spec_no = SPECS.spec_no

    where

    orders.CSCODE = '2507'

    and ORDER_DATE between '01/01/2011' and '12/31/2011'

    and COMPLETION_FLG <> 'X'

    and orders.PLT_NO = 1

    order by ORDER_NO;

    Thanks Again! I appreciate the help.

    [font="Verdana"]"The Road To Success Is Always Under Construction."[/font]

  • What you are working is a dynamic cross tab. It is outlined in the second article I posted but you have to get a bit creative with your aggregation to pull off what you are trying to do. This kind of thing is really really really difficult to pull off in sql because it defies the concepts of normalization completely. Glad you found a way to make it work.

    _______________________________________________________________

    Need help? Help us help you.

    Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

    Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.

    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/

  • Again - Thanks for your help (and Excel's Text To Column Functionality).

    [font="Verdana"]"The Road To Success Is Always Under Construction."[/font]

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