SQL Server: GROUP BY Aggregation semantics with the PIVOT operator

Question

I am on SQL Server 2008 and I have a table containing WA metrics of the following form :

CREATE TABLE #VistitorStat
(
 datelow datetime,
 datehigh datetime,
 name varchar(255),
 cnt  int
)

Two days worth of data in the table looks like so:

2009-07-25 00:00:00.000 2009-07-26 00:00:00.000   New Visitor       221
2009-07-25 00:00:00.000 2009-07-26 00:00:00.000   Unique Visitors   225
2009-07-25 00:00:00.000 2009-07-26 00:00:00.000   Return Visitors   0
2009-07-25 00:00:00.000 2009-07-26 00:00:00.000   Repeat Visitors   22
2009-07-26 00:00:00.000 2009-07-27 00:00:00.000   New Visitor       263
2009-07-26 00:00:00.000 2009-07-27 00:00:00.000   Unique Visitors   269
2009-07-26 00:00:00.000 2009-07-27 00:00:00.000   Return Visitors   4
2009-07-26 00:00:00.000 2009-07-27 00:00:00.000   Repeat Visitors   38

I want to group by the days and pivot the metrics into row form. The examples for using the PIVOT operator that I can find only show aggregation based on the SUM and MAX aggregate function. Presumeably I need to convey GROUP BY semantics to the PIVOT operator -- note: I can't find any clear examples/ documentation on how to achieve this. Could someone please post the correct syntax of this -- with the use of the PIVOT operator -- of this query.

If this is not possible with pivot -- can you come up with an elegant way of writing the querry ? If not i'll just have to generate the data in transposed form.

-- post answer edit --

I have come to the conclussion that the pivot operator is unelegant (so far so that I consider it a syntax hack) -- I have solved the problem by generating the data in a transposed fashion. I welcome comments.

Answer 1

I m not sure of the result you want but this gives a line per day:

CREATE TABLE #VistitorStat
(
 datelow datetime,
 datehigh datetime,
 name varchar(255),
 cnt  int
)


insert into #VistitorStat
      select  '2009-07-25 00:00:00.000','2009-07-26 00:00:00.000',   'New Visitor',       221 
union select  '2009-07-25 00:00:00.000',' 2009-07-26 00:00:00.000',   'Unique Visitors',   225
union select  '2009-07-25 00:00:00.000',' 2009-07-26 00:00:00.000',   'Return Visitors',   0
union select  '2009-07-25 00:00:00.000',' 2009-07-26 00:00:00.000',   'Repeat Visitors',   22
union select  '2009-07-26 00:00:00.000',' 2009-07-27 00:00:00.000',   'New Visitor'    ,   263
union select  '2009-07-26 00:00:00.000',' 2009-07-27 00:00:00.000',   'Unique Visitors',   269
union select  '2009-07-26 00:00:00.000',' 2009-07-27 00:00:00.000',   'Return Visitors',   4
union select  '2009-07-26 00:00:00.000',' 2009-07-27 00:00:00.000',   'Repeat Visitors',   38


select * from #VistitorStat 
pivot (
    sum(cnt)
    for name in ([New Visitor],[Unique Visitors],[Return Visitors], [Repeat Visitors])

) p