CREATE TABLE EAVTable
(RecordID INT NOT NULL,Element CHAR(100) NOT NULL,Value SQL_VARIANT NOT NULL,PRIMARY KEY (RecordID, Element)
)
GO-- Insert some records
INSERT INTO EAVTable (RecordID, Element, Value) VALUES
(1, 'FirstName', 'Woody'),
(1, 'LastName', 'Tu'),
(1, 'City', 'Linhai'),
(1, 'Country', 'China'),
(2, 'FirstName', 'Bill'),
(2, 'LastName', 'Gates'),
(2, 'City', 'Seattle'),
(2, 'Country', 'USA')
GO

 1 -- Pivot the data with a handwritten T-SQL statement.
 2 -- Make sure you have an index defined on the grouping column.
 3 SELECT
 4     RecordID,
 5     -- Spreading and aggregation phase
 6     MAX(CASE WHEN Element = 'FirstName' THEN Value END) AS 'FirstName',
 7     MAX(CASE WHEN Element = 'LastName' THEN Value END) AS 'LastName',
 8     MAX(CASE WHEN Element = 'City' THEN Value END) AS 'City',
 9     MAX(CASE WHEN Element = 'Country' THEN Value END) AS 'Country'
10 FROM EAVTable
11 GROUP BY RecordID -- Grouping phase
12 GO

 1 -- Perform the same query with the native PIVOT operator.
 2 -- The grouping column is not specified explicitly, it's the remaining column
 3 -- that is not referenced in the spreading and aggregation elements.
 4 SELECT
 5     RecordID,
 6     FirstName,
 7     LastName,
 8     City,
 9     Country
10 FROM EAVTable
11 PIVOT(MAX(Value) FOR Element IN (FirstName, LastName, City, Country)) AS t
12 GO

1 -- Add a new column to the table
2 ALTER TABLE EAVTable ADD SomeData CHAR(1)
3 GO

1 UPDATE dbo.EAVTable SET SomeData=LEFT(CAST(Value AS VARCHAR(1)),1)

 1 -- Use a table expression to state explicitly which columns you want to
 2 -- return from the base table. Therefore you can always control on which
 3 -- columns the PIVOT operator is performing the grouping.
 4 SELECT
 5     RecordID,
 6     FirstName,
 7     LastName,
 8     City,
 9     Country
10 FROM
11 (
12     -- Table Expression
13     SELECT RecordID, Element, Value FROM EAVTable
14 ) AS t
15 PIVOT(MAX(Value) FOR Element IN (FirstName, LastName, City, Country)) AS t1
16 GO