sql - how to select columns as rows?

Question

So, I've been searching around and I've found things similar to my problem, but I need more help to get a real solution.

I'm trying to construct a query that will return 2 columns of data, the first column should be a list of the column names themselves and the second should be the value of that column.

Visually it would look like this

Column1      Column2
-------      -------
columnA      value_of_columnA
columnB      value_of_columnB
...          ...

I'm pretty sure that this is going to require dynamic SQL to achieve, but I have no idea how to even begin creating the query.

Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

This should work for any table, but in my example I just create a test one. You need to set the table name within @YourTableName. Also, you need to set @YourTableWhere to limit the results to one row, otherwise the output looks strange with multiple rows mixed together.

try this:

BEGIN TRY
CREATE TABLE YourTestTable
(RowID       int primary key not null identity(1,1)
,col1        int null
,col2        varchar(30)
,col3        varchar(20)
,col4        money
,StatusValue char(1)
,xyz_123     int
)
INSERT INTO YourTestTable (col1,col2,col3,col4,StatusValue,xyz_123) VALUES (1234,'wow wee!','this is a long test!',1234.56,'A',98765)
INSERT INTO YourTestTable (col1,col2,col3,col4,StatusValue,xyz_123) VALUES (543,'oh no!','short test',0,'I',12)

END TRY BEGIN CATCH END CATCH

select * from YourTestTable


DECLARE @YourTableName   varchar(1000)
DECLARE @YourTableWhere  varchar(1000)
DECLARE @YourQuery       varchar(max)

SET @YourTableName='YourTestTable'
set @YourTableWhere='y.RowID=1'

SELECT
    @YourQuery = STUFF(
                       (SELECT
                            ' UNION '
                            + 'SELECT '''+COLUMN_NAME+''', CONVERT(varchar(max),'+COLUMN_NAME+') FROM '+@YourTableName+' y'+ISNULL('  WHERE '+@YourTableWhere,'')
                            FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
                            WHERE table_name = @YourTableName
                            FOR XML PATH('')
                       ), 1, 7, ''
                      )

PRINT @YourQuery  

EXEC (@YourQuery)

OUTPUT:

RowID       col1        col2                           col3                 col4                  StatusValue xyz_123
----------- ----------- ------------------------------ -------------------- --------------------- ----------- -----------
1           1234        wow wee!                       this is a long test! 1234.56               A           98765
2           543         oh no!                         short test           0.00                  I           12

SELECT 'RowID', CONVERT(varchar(max),RowID) FROM YourTestTable y  WHERE y.RowID=1 UNION SELECT 'col1', CONVERT(varchar(max),col1) FROM YourTestTable y  WHERE y.RowID=1 UNION SELECT 'col2', CONVERT(varchar(max),col2) FROM YourTestTable y  WHERE y.RowID=1 UNION SELECT 'col3', CONVERT(varchar(max),col3) FROM YourTestTable y  WHERE y.RowID=1 UNION SELECT 'col4', CONVERT(varchar(max),col4) FROM YourTestTable y  WHERE y.RowID=1 UNION SELECT 'StatusValue', CONVERT(varchar(max),StatusValue) FROM YourTestTable y  WHERE y.RowID=1 UNION SELECT 'xyz_123', CONVERT(varchar(max),xyz_123) FROM YourTestTable y  WHERE y.RowID=1

----------- ------------------------
col1        1234
col2        wow wee!
col3        this is a long test!
col4        1234.56
RowID       1
StatusValue A
xyz_123     98765

EDIT

For SQL Server 2000 compatibility, you should be able to replace varchar(max) with varchar(8000) and use this in place of the SELECT @YourQuery query from the code above:

SELECT
    @YourQuery=ISNULL(@YourQuery+' UNION ','')
        + 'SELECT '''+COLUMN_NAME+''', CONVERT(varchar(max),'+COLUMN_NAME+') FROM '+@YourTableName+' y'+ISNULL('  WHERE '+@YourTableWhere,'')
    FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS
    WHERE table_name = @YourTableName