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Query syntax

UNPIVOT¶

Rotates a table by transforming columns into rows. UNPIVOT is a relational operator that accepts two columns (from a table or subquery), along with a list of columns, and generates a row for each column specified in the list. In a query, it is specified in the FROM clause after the table name or subquery.

UNPIVOT is not exactly the reverse of PIVOT because it cannot undo aggregations made by PIVOT.

This operator can be used to transform a wide table (e.g. empid, jan_sales, feb_sales, mar_sales) into a narrower table (e.g. empid, month, sales).

See also:

PIVOT

Syntax¶

SELECT ...
FROM ...
    UNPIVOT [ { INCLUDE | EXCLUDE } NULLS ]
      ( <value_column>
        FOR <name_column> IN ( <column_list> ) )

[ ... ]
Copy

Parameters¶

{ INCLUDE | EXCLUDE } NULLS

Specifies whether to include or exclude rows with NULLs in the name_column:

  • INCLUDE NULLS includes rows with NULLs.

  • EXCLUDE NULLS excludes rows with NULLs.

Default: EXCLUDE NULLS

value_column

The name to assign to the generated column that will be populated with the values from the columns in the column list.

name_column

The name to assign to the generated column that will be populated with the names of the columns in the column list.

column_list

The names of the columns in the source table or subquery that will be rotated into a single pivot column. The column names will populate name_column, and the column values will populate value_column.

The column_list can only contain literal column names, not a subquery.

Examples¶

Create a table, monthly_sales, with the following structure and data:

CREATE OR REPLACE TABLE monthly_sales(
  empid INT,
  dept TEXT,
  jan INT,
  feb INT,
  mar INT,
  apr INT
);

INSERT INTO monthly_sales VALUES
  (1, 'electronics', 100, 200, 300, 100),
  (2, 'clothes', 100, 300, 150, 200),
  (3, 'cars', 200, 400, 100, 50),
  (4, 'appliances', 100, NULL, 100, 50);

SELECT * FROM monthly_sales;
Copy
+-------+-------------+-----+------+------+-----+
| EMPID | DEPT        | JAN | FEB  | MAR  | APR |
|-------+-------------+-----+------+------+-----|
|     1 | electronics | 100 | 200  | 300  | 100 |
|     2 | clothes     | 100 | 300  | 150  | 200 |
|     3 | cars        | 200 | 400  | 100  |  50 |
|     4 | appliances  | 100 | NULL | 100  |  50 |
+-------+-------------+-----+------+------+-----+

Unpivot the individual month columns to return a single sales value by month for each employee.

SELECT *
  FROM monthly_sales
    UNPIVOT (sales FOR month IN (jan, feb, mar, apr))
  ORDER BY empid;
Copy
+-------+-------------+-------+-------+
| EMPID | DEPT        | MONTH | SALES |
|-------+-------------+-------+-------|
|     1 | electronics | JAN   |   100 |
|     1 | electronics | FEB   |   200 |
|     1 | electronics | MAR   |   300 |
|     1 | electronics | APR   |   100 |
|     2 | clothes     | JAN   |   100 |
|     2 | clothes     | FEB   |   300 |
|     2 | clothes     | MAR   |   150 |
|     2 | clothes     | APR   |   200 |
|     3 | cars        | JAN   |   200 |
|     3 | cars        | FEB   |   400 |
|     3 | cars        | MAR   |   100 |
|     3 | cars        | APR   |    50 |
|     4 | appliances  | JAN   |   100 |
|     4 | appliances  | MAR   |   100 |
|     4 | appliances  | APR   |    50 |
+-------+-------------+-------+-------+

The previous SELECT statement excludes NULLs by default. So, it does not include a row for appliances in February in the results. To include NULLs in the results, run the following SQL statement:

SELECT *
  FROM monthly_sales
    UNPIVOT INCLUDE NULLS (sales FOR month IN (jan, feb, mar, apr))
  ORDER BY empid;
Copy
+-------+-------------+-------+-------+
| EMPID | DEPT        | MONTH | SALES |
|-------+-------------+-------+-------|
|     1 | electronics | JAN   |   100 |
|     1 | electronics | FEB   |   200 |
|     1 | electronics | MAR   |   300 |
|     1 | electronics | APR   |   100 |
|     2 | clothes     | JAN   |   100 |
|     2 | clothes     | FEB   |   300 |
|     2 | clothes     | MAR   |   150 |
|     2 | clothes     | APR   |   200 |
|     3 | cars        | JAN   |   200 |
|     3 | cars        | FEB   |   400 |
|     3 | cars        | MAR   |   100 |
|     3 | cars        | APR   |    50 |
|     4 | appliances  | JAN   |   100 |
|     4 | appliances  | FEB   |  NULL |
|     4 | appliances  | MAR   |   100 |
|     4 | appliances  | APR   |    50 |
+-------+-------------+-------+-------+

This output includes a row for appliances in February.

Instead of selecting all columns with *, you can include specific columns in the SELECT list and reference the UNPIVOT value_column and name_column. The following example is similar to the previous example, but it specifies the value_column sales and the name_column month in the SELECT list. The query excludes the empid column:

SELECT dept, month, sales
  FROM monthly_sales
    UNPIVOT INCLUDE NULLS (sales FOR month IN (jan, feb, mar, apr))
  ORDER BY dept;
Copy
+-------------+-------+-------+
| DEPT        | MONTH | SALES |
|-------------+-------+-------|
| appliances  | JAN   |   100 |
| appliances  | FEB   |  NULL |
| appliances  | MAR   |   100 |
| appliances  | APR   |    50 |
| cars        | JAN   |   200 |
| cars        | FEB   |   400 |
| cars        | MAR   |   100 |
| cars        | APR   |    50 |
| clothes     | JAN   |   100 |
| clothes     | FEB   |   300 |
| clothes     | MAR   |   150 |
| clothes     | APR   |   200 |
| electronics | JAN   |   100 |
| electronics | FEB   |   200 |
| electronics | MAR   |   300 |
| electronics | APR   |   100 |
+-------------+-------+-------+
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