How can I return pivot table output in MySQL?

How to Return Pivot Table Output in MySQL 🔄

Are you struggling to return pivot table output in MySQL? 🤔 Don't worry, we've got you covered! In this blog post, we'll address your common query and provide you with easy solutions to achieve the desired output. By the end of this article, you'll be able to generate pivot table-like results using MySQL. Let's dive in! 💻📊

Understanding the Problem 📚

To better comprehend the problem, let's take a look at the example provided. You have a MySQL table structured like this:

CREATE TABLE actions (
   company_name VARCHAR(20),
   action VARCHAR(10),
   pagecount INT
);

And the table contains the following data:

company_name    action  pagecount
-------------------------------
CompanyA        PRINT   3
CompanyA        PRINT   2
CompanyA        PRINT   3
CompanyB        EMAIL   
CompanyB        PRINT   2
CompanyB        PRINT   2
CompanyB        PRINT   1
CompanyA        PRINT   3

You want to achieve a pivot table-like output where the rows represent the company names, and the columns represent each unique combination of actions and page counts. Each cell in the table should display the number of hits for that specific action/page count combination.

The Solution 🛠️

To achieve the desired pivot table output, we'll make use of the powerful GROUP BY clause and some MySQL functions. Here's the query you can use:

SELECT
    company_name,
    SUM(CASE WHEN action = 'EMAIL' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS EMAIL,
    SUM(CASE WHEN action = 'PRINT' AND pagecount = 1 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS `PRINT 1 pages`,
    SUM(CASE WHEN action = 'PRINT' AND pagecount = 2 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS `PRINT 2 pages`,
    SUM(CASE WHEN action = 'PRINT' AND pagecount = 3 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS `PRINT 3 pages`
FROM
    actions
GROUP BY
    company_name;

Let's break down the query to understand how it works:

• The SELECT statement retrieves the columns we want in the output, including company_name and individual columns for each action/page count combination.

• The SUM function is used to calculate the total hits for each combination. It uses the CASE statement to conditionally count the hits based on the action and page count criteria.

• The GROUP BY clause groups the results by the company_name column.

By executing this query, you'll get the desired pivot table-like output:

company_name    EMAIL   PRINT 1 pages   PRINT 2 pages   PRINT 3 pages
-------------------------------------------------------------
CompanyA        0       0               1               3
CompanyB        1       1               2               0

Conclusion and Call-to-Action 🎉

Congratulations! You've learned how to return pivot table output in MySQL. 🥳 Now you can easily transform your data and generate meaningful reports using the power of MySQL queries.

If you found this guide helpful, don't forget to share it with your friends and colleagues who might also benefit from it. If you have any further questions or want to share your thoughts, leave a comment below! We'd love to hear from you.

Keep exploring and happy coding! 💪💻