Help with oracle 11g pivot operator

Question

i need some help with oracle 11g pivot operator. is it possible to use multiple columns in the FOR clause and then compare it against multiple set of values.
here is the sql to create some sample data
create table pivot_data ( country_code number , dept number, job varchar2(20), sal number );
insert into pivot_data values (1,30 , 'SALESMAN', 5000);
insert into pivot_data values (1,301, 'SALESMAN', 5500);
insert into pivot_data values (1,30 , 'MANAGER', 10000);     
insert into pivot_data values (1,301, 'MANAGER', 10500);
insert into pivot_data values (1,30 , 'CLERK', 4000);
insert into pivot_data values (1,302, 'CLERK',4500);
insert into pivot_data values (2,30 , 'SALESMAN', 6000);
insert into pivot_data values (2,301, 'SALESMAN', 6500);
insert into pivot_data values (2,30 , 'MANAGER', 11000);     
insert into pivot_data values (2,301, 'MANAGER', 11500);
insert into pivot_data values (2,30 , 'CLERK', 3000);
insert into pivot_data values (2,302, 'CLERK',3500);
using case when I can write something like this and get the output i want
select country_code
,avg(case when (( dept = 30 and job = 'SALESMAN' ) or ( dept = 301 and job = 'SALESMAN' ) ) then sal end ) as d30_sls
,avg(case when (( dept = 30 and job = 'MANAGER' ) or ( dept = 301 and job = 'MANAGER' ) ) then sal end ) as d30_mgr
,avg(case when (( dept = 30 and job = 'CLERK' ) or ( dept = 302 and job = 'CLERK' ) ) then sal end ) as d30_clrk
from pivot_data group by country_code;
output
country_code          D30_SLS               D30_MGR               D30_CLRK
1      5250      10250      4250
2      6250      11250      3250
what I tried with pivot is like this I get what I want if I have only one ( dept,job) for one alias name. I want to call (30 , 'SALESMAN') or (301 , 'SALESMAN') AS d30_sls. any help how can I do this
SELECT *
FROM pivot_data
PIVOT (SUM(sal) AS sum
FOR (dept,job) IN ( (30 , 'SALESMAN') AS d30_sls,
          (30 , 'MANAGER') AS d30_mgr,               
(30 , 'CLERK') AS d30_clk
this is a simple example .... my real life scenario is compliated with more fields and more combinations .... So something like using substr(dept,1,2) won't work in my real case .
any suggestions get the result similar to what i get in the case when example is really appreciated.

Answer 1

Hi,
Sorry, I don't think there's any way to get exactly what you requested. The values you give in the PIVOT ... IN clause are exact values, not alternatives.
You could do something like this to map all alternatives to a common value:
WITH     got_dept_grp     AS
     SELECT     country_code, job, sal
     ,     CASE
              WHEN  job IN ('SALESMAN', 'MANAGER') AND dept = 301 THEN 30
              WHEN  job IN ('CLERK')               AND dept = 302 THEN 30
                                                                 ELSE dept
          END     AS dept_grp
     FROM     pivot_data
SELECT     *
FROM     got_dept_grp
PIVOT     (     AVG (sal)
     FOR     (job, dept_grp)
     IN     ( ('SALESMAN', 30)
          , ('MANAGER' , 30)
          , ('CLERK'   , 30)
;In your sample data (and perhaps in your real data), it's about as easy to explicitly define the pivoted groups individually, like this:
WITH     got_pivot_key     AS
     SELECT     country_code, sal
     ,     CASE
              WHEN  job = 'SALESMAN' AND dept IN (30, 301) THEN 'd30_sls'
              WHEN  job = 'MANAGER'  AND dept IN (30, 301) THEN 'd30_mgr'
              WHEN  job = 'CLERK'    AND dept IN (30, 302) THEN 'd30_clrk'
          END     AS pivot_key
     FROM    pivot_data
SELECT     *
FROM     got_pivot_key
PIVOT     (     AVG (sal)
     FOR     pivot_key
     IN     ( 'd30_sls'
          , 'd30_mgr'
          , 'd30_clrk'
;Thanks for posting the CREATE TABLE and INSERT statements; that really helps!