Dynamic Pivot multiple columns in SQL Server

Question

I have a table like this

Id   Name   FromAddress   ToAddress
1    Joey      ABC          JKL
2    Joey      DEF          MNP
3    Joey      GHI          OQR
         


        

Answer 1

I believe the problem is the IN () expression in the PIVOTs. The column list explicitly has to be a list of fields names, not a function and not a list of varchar literals or function values. You've got a REPLACE() function in there. The engine expects to be looking for a field named [REPLACE] and then gets confused by the open parentheses that shows up.

This is valid (square brackets for emphasis):

SELECT VendorID, Employee, Orders
FROM 
   (SELECT VendorID, Emp1, Emp2, Emp3, Emp4, Emp5
   FROM pvt) p
UNPIVOT
   (Orders FOR Employee IN 
      ([Emp1], [Emp2], [Emp3], [Emp4], [Emp5])
)AS unpvt;

This is not:

SELECT VendorID, Employee, Orders
FROM 
   (SELECT VendorID, Emp1, Emp2, Emp3, Emp4, Emp5
   FROM pvt) p
UNPIVOT
   (Orders FOR Employee IN 
      ('Emp1', 'Emp2', 'Emp3', 'Emp4', 'Emp5')
)AS unpvt;

And this is not valid:

SELECT VendorID, Employee, Orders
FROM 
   (SELECT VendorID, Emp1, Emp2, Emp3, Emp4, Emp5
   FROM pvt) p
UNPIVOT
   (Orders FOR Employee IN 
      (REPLACE('Emp1','1','A'), REPLACE('Emp2','2','B'))
)AS unpvt;

Replace the execute(@query) with a select @query or print @query to see the query your code generated and troubleshoot the syntax in a query analyzer that way. Then work backwards.

You want to do the REPLACE() at the same level you're building the query. The query that ends up in the @query variable should already have the column names fixed.

Alternately, you could generate @colsFromLabels, @colsToLabels, @colsFrom and @colsTo with the former two have the 'from' and to bits added and the latter two just being column names.

Your desired output is a little gross as far as square bracket escaping, too.