Re: reverse pivoting

damorgan <damorgan_at_exesolutions.com> wrote:

>A couple of quick thoughts in no way intended as a criticism ... First ...
>decode is PL/SQL not "pure SQL".

I agree. I did say that using DECODE was not "standard SQL". The first method will work on most any SQL database. The last method too. But DECODES in Oracle is great - it allows for some real interesting IF conditions to be built into a SELECT statement.

What I did got wrong was calling the 3rd method a cartesian join. It is not.

> Second, I think these people are getting this assignment as part of a
> school curriculum, and we shouldn't be doing their homework for them.

Well, I hope not. I've seen this question asked many times in the data warehousing and DSS environment.

--
Billy