sql query to show results vertically

Question

How to transform this:

ID   Name    Description
1    Test1a   TestDesc1a
1    Test1b   TestDesc1b
2    Test2a   TestDesc2a
2    Test2b   TestDesc2b

into this:

ID   Column          1            2
1    Name          test1a       test1b
1    Description   testDesc1a   testDesc1b

Answer 1

This is a tricky question to solve, however the output specified is not proper/ conflicting. Below is similar solution which you can try

Sample Table creation:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TestTable](
[Id] [int] NULL,
[Name] [nvarchar](50) NULL,
[Description] [nvarchar](50) NULL)

Inserting sample values:

INSERT INTO TestTable VALUES (1,'Test1a','TestDesc1a')
INSERT INTO TestTable VALUES (2,'Test1b','TestDesc1b')
INSERT INTO TestTable VALUES (3,'Test2a','TestDesc2a')
INSERT INTO TestTable VALUES (4,'Test2b','TestDesc2b')

Query to get the desired output using Pivot:

SELECT  'Name' AS [Column], [1], [2],[3],[4]
FROM
(SELECT Name, id from TestTable) AS ST
PIVOT
(Max(Name) FOR ID IN ([1], [2],[3],[4])) AS PT

UNION

SELECT  'Description' AS [Column], [1], [2],[3],[4]
FROM
(SELECT  id,[Description] from TestTable) AS ST
PIVOT
(Max([Description]) FOR ID IN ([1], [2],[3],[4])) AS PT
ORDER BY [Column] DESC

OutPut:

Column         1           2          3           4
Name           Test1a      Test1b     Test2a      Test2b
Description    TestDesc1a  TestDesc1b TestDesc2a  TestDesc2b

Hope this helps to solve your question.

Answer 2

You can use a static PIVOT if you only are going to have a few columns but I am guessing that you will have more than 2 IDs so you will probably want to use a Dynamic PIVOT for this query. Using a dynamic pivot will allow you to have more than the two ids you provided, it will grab all of the Ids from the table and then PIVOT:

create table temp
(
    id int,
    name varchar(10),
    description varchar(20)
)

insert into temp values (1, 'Test1a', 'TestDesc1a')
insert into temp values (1, 'Test1b', 'TestDesc1b')
insert into temp values (2, 'Test2a', 'TestDesc2a')
insert into temp values (2, 'Test2b', 'TestDesc2b')


DECLARE @cols AS NVARCHAR(MAX),
    @query  AS NVARCHAR(MAX);

SET @cols = STUFF((SELECT distinct ',' + QUOTENAME(c.id) 
            FROM temp c
            FOR XML PATH(''), TYPE
            ).value('.', 'NVARCHAR(MAX)') 
        ,1,1,'')

set @query = 'SELECT ''Name'' as [Column], ' + @cols + ' from 
            (
                select id
                    , name
                from temp
           ) x
            pivot 
            (
                 max(name)
                for id in (' + @cols + ')
            ) p 
            UNION 
            SELECT ''Description'' as [Column], ' + @cols + ' from 
            (
                select id
                    , description
                from temp
           ) x
            pivot 
            (
                 max(description)
                for id in (' + @cols + ')
            ) p '


execute(@query)

drop table temp

Results:

Column          1             2
Description     TestDesc1b    TestDesc2b
Name            Test1b        Test2b