SQL: transform rows into columns in MySQL (SELECT statement)

Question

I got table orders and order_comments. Each order can have from 0 to n comments. I would like to get list of all orders with their comments in a sepcific order.

Table orders:

order_id | order_nr 
1 | 5252
4 | 6783
5 | 6785

Table order_comments

id_order_comments | order_fk | created_at | email | content
1 | 4 | 2015-01-12 | jack | some text here
2 | 5 | 2015-01-13 | marta | some text here
3 | 5 | 2015-01-14 | beata | some text here
4 | 4 | 2015-01-16 | julia | some text here

As a result, I would like to get 1 row for each order. Comments should be shown in separate columns, starting from the oldest comment. So desired output in this case is:

order_id | 1_comment_created_at | 1_comment_author | 1_comment_content | 2_comment_created_at | 2_comment_author | 2_comment_content 
1 | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL | NULL
4 | 2015-01-12 | jack | some text here |  2015-01-16 | Julia | some text here
5 | 2015-01-13 | marta | some text here | 2015-01-14 | beata | some text here

I found this: MySQL - Rows to Columns - but I cannot use 'create view'.
I found this: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/while.html - but I cannot create procedure in this db.

What I got:

SELECT @c := (SELECT count(*) FROM order_comments GROUP BY order_fk ORDER BY count(*) DESC LIMIT 1);

SET @rank=0;
SET @test=0;

SELECT
  CASE WHEN @test < @c AND temp.comment_id = @test THEN temp.created_at END AS created,
  CASE WHEN @test < @c AND temp.comment_id = @test THEN temp.author END AS author,
  CASE WHEN @test < @c AND temp.comment_id = @test THEN temp.content END AS content
  /*But I cannot set @test as +1. And I cannot name column with variable - like CONCAT(@test, '_created')*/

FROM (
  SELECT @rank := @rank +1 AS comment_id, created_at, author, content
  FROM order_comments 
  WHERE order_fk = 4
  ORDER BY created_at
) AS temp

Problem: I would like to search more than 1 order. I should get orders with no comments too. What can I do?

Gordon Linoff · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-27T22:21:56.160

3

You can use variables for this type of pivot, but the query is a bit more complicated, because you need to enumerate the values for each order:

SELECT o.order_id,
       MAX(case when rank = 1 then created_at end) as created_at_1,
       MAX(case when rank = 1 then email end) as email_1,
       MAX(case when rank = 1 then content end) as content_1,
       MAX(case when rank = 2 then created_at end) as created_at_2,
       MAX(case when rank = 2 then email end) as email_2,
       MAX(case when rank = 2 then content end) as content_2,
FROM orders o LEFT JOIN
     (SELECT oc.*,
             (@rn := if(@o = order_fk, @rn + 1,
                        if(@o := order_fk, 1, 1)
                       )
             ) as rank
      FROM order_comments oc CROSS JOIN
           (SELECT @rn := 0, @o := 0) vars
      ORDER BY order_fk, created_at
     ) oc
     ON o.order_id = oc.order_fk
GROUP BY o.order_id;

edited Jan 27 '15 at 22:21

answered Jan 21 '15 at 12:22

Gordon Linoff

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Gordon, can you please explain to me what does it do? `(@rn := if(@o = @order_rk, @rn + 1, if(@o := @order_fk, 1, 1))` In the result of subquery, rank is always = 1. – suz Jan 22 '15 at 11:13
@suz . . . This is the MySQL equivalent of `row_number()`. It assigns a sequential number to the rows, within groups for each order. – Gordon Linoff Jan 22 '15 at 12:36
From what I see in this query rank is always = 1. – suz Jan 22 '15 at 13:20
As above... From what I see rank does not work, but you gave me an idea. Thank you. – suz Jan 26 '15 at 11:32

SQL: transform rows into columns in MySQL (SELECT statement)

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