[Feature] Support PIVOT and UNPIVOT statements (DuckDB-style syntax)

Motivation

Reshaping data between wide and long form is a very common need in time-series analytics and reporting:

• PIVOT (long → wide): turn distinct values of a column (e.g. region, device_id, a status code) into separate columns, aggregating a measurement per cell. Great for building cross-tab/report-style result sets.
• UNPIVOT (wide → long): stack multiple measurement columns (e.g. temperature, humidity, pressure) into a (name, value) pair. This is especially natural for IoTDB, where the table model stores each measurement as its own column and users frequently want a normalized long format for downstream analytics or export.

Today the table model has no PIVOT / UNPIVOT, so users must hand-write verbose CASE WHEN ... END aggregations (for pivoting) or long UNION ALL chains (for unpivoting). This proposes first-class PIVOT / UNPIVOT support, using DuckDB's syntax as the reference, since DuckDB offers both the SQL-standard form and a friendly simplified form, and is the most ergonomic of the mainstream engines.

Examples below assume a table model table like device_metrics(time, device_id, region, temperature, humidity).

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Proposed Syntax (reference: DuckDB)

DuckDB implements two syntaxes for each statement: a simplified (DuckDB-specific) form and the SQL-standard form. We can adopt one or both.

PIVOT

Simplified form

PIVOT ⟨table⟩
ON ⟨columns⟩                 -- distinct values become new columns
USING ⟨aggregate(s)⟩         -- value of each cell
GROUP BY ⟨rows⟩              -- remaining row keys
[ORDER BY ...] [LIMIT ...];

IoTDB example — turn region values into columns of average temperature, one row per device:

PIVOT device_metrics
ON region
USING avg(temperature)
GROUP BY device_id;

Restrict to specific values with IN, and use multiple/aliased aggregates:

PIVOT device_metrics
ON region IN ('north', 'south')
USING avg(temperature) AS avg_temp, max(temperature) AS max_temp
GROUP BY device_id;
-- => columns: device_id, north_avg_temp, north_max_temp, south_avg_temp, south_max_temp

To reshape without aggregating, DuckDB uses first() (e.g. USING first(temperature)).

SQL-standard form

SELECT * FROM device_metrics
PIVOT (
  avg(temperature) AS avg_temp
  FOR region IN ('north', 'south')
  GROUP BY device_id
);

UNPIVOT

Simplified form

UNPIVOT ⟨table⟩
ON ⟨value-columns⟩
INTO NAME ⟨name-col⟩ VALUE ⟨value-col⟩;

IoTDB example — stack measurement columns into long (measurement, value) rows:

UNPIVOT device_metrics
ON temperature, humidity
INTO NAME measurement VALUE value;
-- => columns: time, device_id, region, measurement, value

Dynamic column selection with COLUMNS(* EXCLUDE (...)) (keeps working when new measurements are added):

UNPIVOT device_metrics
ON COLUMNS(* EXCLUDE (time, device_id, region))
INTO NAME measurement VALUE value;

SQL-standard form (with optional INCLUDE NULLS; default drops rows whose value is NULL):

FROM device_metrics
UNPIVOT [INCLUDE NULLS] (
  value FOR measurement IN (temperature, humidity)
);

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Capabilities to cover (from DuckDB)

• PIVOT: ON (one or more columns), USING (one or more aggregates, optional AS alias), GROUP BY rows; optional IN (...) list to fix the pivoted values; generated column naming like ⟨value⟩_⟨agg-alias⟩.
• UNPIVOT: ON explicit columns or COLUMNS(* EXCLUDE (...)), INTO NAME ... VALUE ...; INCLUDE NULLS; (advanced) multiple value columns in one statement; expressions/casts inside ON to reconcile differing column types.
• Usable as a top-level statement and inside subqueries / CTEs.
• (DuckDB also exposes PIVOT_WIDER / PIVOT_LONGER as aliases — optional.)

Design decisions to discuss before implementing

1. Which syntax first — simplified, SQL-standard, or both. (Recommend landing one end-to-end first, then the other.)
2. Static vs. dynamic columns (biggest one). ON region without an IN list requires discovering distinct values at runtime, so the output schema isn't known at plan time. Proposal: require an explicit IN (...) list in v1 (static schema), and treat auto-detection as a follow-up (it needs a pre-execution scan of the source).
3. Default grouping. DuckDB defaults to GROUP BY ALL. In IoTDB, defaulting to include the time column would explode cardinality — so we should likely require an explicit GROUP BY (or define a sensible default that excludes time).
4. NULL handling for UNPIVOT. Default drops NULL values; support INCLUDE NULLS.
5. Type unification for the UNPIVOT value column. When source columns differ in type, do we implicit-cast or require explicit casts (DuckDB requires explicit casts)?
6. Generated column naming rules, and how non-identifier pivot values (e.g. values with spaces) are quoted.
7. Scope/phasing of multi-column ON, multiple aggregates, and multiple value columns.

Prior Art

Engine	PIVOT	UNPIVOT	Auto-detect (dynamic) columns	Friendly/simplified syntax
DuckDB (reference)	✅	✅	✅	✅ (ON/USING/INTO)
SQL Server	✅	✅	❌ (must list values)	❌
Oracle	✅	✅	❌	❌
Snowflake	✅	✅	✅ (ANY / subquery)	❌
Spark SQL	✅	✅	❌ (must list values)	❌

Acceptance Criteria

• PIVOT with ON / USING / GROUP BY and an explicit IN (...) list (static output schema).
• UNPIVOT with INTO NAME ... VALUE ... (simplified) and/or FOR ... IN (...) (SQL-standard).
• INCLUDE NULLS option for UNPIVOT (default = drop NULLs).
• PIVOT / UNPIVOT usable inside subqueries and CTEs.
• Documented column-naming and value-column type rules.
• Tests + user documentation.
• (Phase 2) dynamic column auto-detection, multiple aggregates, COLUMNS(* EXCLUDE ...), multiple value columns.

References

• DuckDB — PIVOT statement: https://duckdb.org/docs/stable/sql/statements/pivot
• DuckDB — UNPIVOT statement: https://duckdb.org/docs/stable/sql/statements/unpivot
• DuckDB — Friendly SQL (background): https://duckdb.org/2023/08/23/even-friendlier-sql

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Note: this can be split into two independently claimable tasks — PIVOT and UNPIVOT — if preferred.

Suggested labels: enhancement, table model / SQL.