Reshaping Data with Advanced Techniques

When working with data, we sometimes find that we need to reshape it in order for it to be useful for storing in a table or to use that data for reporting purposes, and to do that, we transpose data by either moving columns to rows (or vice versa) and/or storing data in a hierarchical structure.

In this chapter, you will learn three advanced ways of reshaping data—PIVOT, UNPIVOT, and hierarchies, to manipulate data into meaningful output.

We will cover each topic in three main sections:

• Working with the PIVOT operator
• Working with the UNPIVOT operator
• Understanding hierarchical data