Automating A Two-To-Many Pivot Table In SQL Server

Every now and then we have to create a pivot table from a dat set. In the video TSQL: How To Automate A Two-To-Many-Column Pivot Table, we look at a technique to automate this process - as pivot tables are not always intuitive for us to create.

Some points that we make:

• We use a combination of procedures
• Note where this applies and doesn't
• The code is linked in the video

We create a test data set, then use our automation to test our functionality. I suggest that you do the same as well with a test data set of yours.

One regular point I like to remind my audience, especially as of recent: we can often solve the same problem with a variety of techniques. While we look at one or two ways to solve the problem, these aren't the only ways we can approach this problem. The most appropriate solution to a problem is one in which you can troubleshoot quickly in the future and one in which you understand. Be careful about applying solutions that solve a problem, but introduce new problems in the future.

A great re-occuring example of this is my discussion on alerting best practices. There are a variety of alerts everywhere for everything in today's development environments, but many of these alerts cause more issues than they solve (one of which is creating a distraction). Be careful about "easy" solutions which introduce bigger problems. Know your environment and where to apply the best solution. Of course, all these being written, it is helpful to learn new techniques to solve problems because they may be useful in the future.