unpivot and PostgreSQL

Question

Is there a unpivot equivalent function in PostgreSQL?

Answer 1

You can use the crosstab() function in PostgreSQL to implement pivot functionality.

See http://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/tablefunc.html

It's the reverse operation of a pivot. I'm not sure if it's straightforward to implement unpivot with crosstab() but perhaps this can get you started.

Answer 2

I wrote a horrible unpivot function for PostgreSQL. It's rather slow but it at least returns results like you'd expect an unpivot operation to.

https://cgsrv1.arrc.csiro.au/blog/2010/05/14/unpivotuncrosstab-in-postgresql/

Hopefully you can find it useful..