SQL Pivot on Dynamic Date Range

Question

I'm attempting to pivot counts on dates in SSMS with a dynamic date range (previous 90 days), but my dates are out of order in the results. Is there a way to put an ORDER BY in this query? Or, does someone have a better way to pivot on a dynamic date range?

declare @cols as nvarchar(max);
declare @query as nvarchar(max); 

select @cols = stuff((select distinct 
                             ',' + quotename(ColumnDate) 
                        from 
                             [Database].[Schema].[ExampleTable] as et
                         for 
                             xml path(''), type).value('.', 'nvarchar(max)'), 1, 1, '');

select @query = 'select *
                   from 
                        (select et.Place                   
                                ,et.ColumnDate
                                ,et.ValueToAggregate
                           from 
                                [Database].[Schema].[ExampleTable] as et) as t 
                  pivot   
                        (count(ValueToAggregate) 
                         for ColumnDate in( ' + @cols + ')' + ')  as p; ';
                        
execute(@query);




The dates in my results are out of order...

Place               |3/25/2021  |4/19/2021  |2/21/2021  |3/22/2021  |2/14/2021  |2/11/2021
Test_Facility_1     |6          |5          |0          |2          |0          |3
Test_Facility_2     |1          |0          |0          |2          |2          |2
Test_Facility_3     |0          |1          |0          |1          |1          |2
Test_Facility_4     |124        |111        |85         |83         |95         |97

Answer 1

You can use ORDER BY in your first SELECT statement between the FROM and the FOR XML . However, exactly which expression to use in the order by may depend on the data type of column ColumnDate . If it is a date column, then you can just use

ORDER BY ColumnDate