<div>
To change the column names - at all - you need either: 
 
&nbsp;1. Dynamic SQL 
&nbsp;2. Multiple queries and some branching logic. 
 
Since the columns needed would be different on different rows 
This simply is not possible in a single query
</div>

<div>
IF you add a small sample you data (just small few rows, few columns) - and - from that sample a mockup of what you would like as a result, then we may be able to suggest alternatives. 
 
Just copy/paste the sample and expected result, or use Excel, but easily parsed text is good. 

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-20-42360188-1">MyTable
ID col1 col 2 col3
1 x y z
</code></pre>
</div>

<div>
<blockquote>
Any way to write a query that will conditionally include a column?
</blockquote>
No, but you could make the column value NULL for post-processing and filter to include records only where columns are matches via LIKE or REGEXP. 
 
This is an extremely taxing way of searching the table, however, you could add a WHERE clause to the end of that which matches your case columns to reduce the records which have none of the conditions matched: 

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-20-42360271-1">SELECT *,
CASE WHEN Optionscolumn like '%A%' THEN 'yes' else '' END As ContainsA, 
CASE WHEN Optionscolumn like '%B%' THEN 'yes' else '' END As ContainsB, 
CASE WHEN Optionscolumn like '%C%' THEN 'yes' else '' END As ContainsC,
FROM table1
WHERE 
Optionscolumn Like '%A%' 
OR Optionscolumn Like '%B%' 
OR Optionscolumn Like '%C%'
</code></pre>
 
Instead consider a WHERE with REGEXP: 

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-20-42360271-2">SELECT *,
CASE WHEN Optionscolumn like '%A%' THEN 'yes' else '' END As ContainsA, 
CASE WHEN Optionscolumn like '%B%' THEN 'yes' else '' END As ContainsB, 
CASE WHEN Optionscolumn like '%C%' THEN 'yes' else '' END As ContainsC,
FROM table1
WHERE 
Optionscolumn REGEXP '[ABC]';
</code></pre>
 
Or if you want to return rows that match a pattern consider a WHERE with REGEXP by itself: 

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-20-42360271-3">SELECT *
FROM table1
WHERE 
Optionscolumn REGEXP '[AEIOUY]'; /* return rows only if A, E, I, O, U, or Y is in Optionscolumn */
</code></pre>
 
 
<a href="https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/regexp.html" rel="ugc">https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/regexp.html</a> 
 
What characters are you looking for? We might be able to help you better if we knew more about what you are trying to accomplish.
</div>

<div>
Could we wait for a sample? &nbsp;It's so unproductive plying the guessing game (e.g. maybe listagg() solves this or json?, who knows). 
 
By the way. What database is this for? Oracle? Postgres? (something with regex , but which one) 
Query syntax differs between dbms vendors
</div>

<div>
You're right PortletPaul. We need sample and database name. 
 
Also, REGEXP is more taxing than LIKE because LIKE is able to use indexes whereas REGEXP does not. 
1.) Is the Optionscolumn indexed? 
 
I used REGEXP as an example in case you need more complex matches. 
2.) What are your most complicated searches?
</div>

<div>
Here's a sample. 
The table would consist of row of columns A &amp;&nbsp;B 
the spreadsheet shows what the output would be if you 
rewrote this query to include the answer to the posted question: 
 
Select &nbsp;ID, Codes, &nbsp;(code parsing - column creating TSQL code goes here) &nbsp;from &nbsp;SampleTable 
 
The output would look like the spreadsheet. 
There would be tests for the presence of quite a few more codes. The &quot;Has&quot; columns would 
only be created for codes that were found in the codes column. 
 
Different recordsets containing different codes would have a different set of &nbsp;&quot;has&quot; codes. 
Hope this helps. 
My alternative is to test for all codes and include a column for all, but I'd rather not have 
a lot of empty columns. 
I don't know, perhaps 5 thousand records would have a least one of every &nbsp;code. &nbsp; 
Regardless, I'd still like to solve this. Or get help from you people! 
 
We allow users to export this data, and of course they see the code column and want to know what they mean. 
This is creating &nbsp;code translation columns for a column that has a variable number of &nbsp;codes packed in. 
<a href="https://filedb.experts-exchange.com/incoming/2017/11_w45/1209931/SQLCodeParseSample.xlsx" target="_blank" class="file-inline" title="sample for code parsing query (9 KB)"><svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 512 512"><path d="M67.508 468.467c-58.005-58.013-58.016-151.92 0-209.943l225.011-225.04c44.643-44.645 117.279-44.645 161.92 0 44.743 44.749 44.753 117.186 0 161.944l-189.465 189.49c-31.41 31.413-82.518 31.412-113.926.001-31.479-31.482-31.49-82.453 0-113.944L311.51 110.491c4.687-4.687 12.286-4.687 16.972 0l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.685 12.283 0 16.969L184.983 304.917c-12.724 12.724-12.73 33.328 0 46.058 12.696 12.697 33.356 12.699 46.054-.001l189.465-189.489c25.987-25.989 25.994-68.06.001-94.056-25.931-25.934-68.119-25.932-94.049 0l-225.01 225.039c-39.249 39.252-39.258 102.795-.001 142.057 39.285 39.29 102.885 39.287 142.162-.028A739446.174 739446.174 0 0 1 439.497 238.49c4.686-4.687 12.282-4.684 16.969.004l16.967 16.971c4.685 4.686 4.689 12.279.004 16.965a755654.128 755654.128 0 0 0-195.881 195.996c-58.034 58.092-152.004 58.093-210.048.041z"/></svg>SQLCodeParseSample.xlsx</a>
</div>

SQLCodeParseSample.xlsx

<div>
This is the &quot;expected result&quot;, is that correct? 

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-20-42360347-1">| ID | Codes | HasN | HasY | Has^ | HasW | HasZ | Has~ | Has@ | Has* | HasR |
|------|--------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|------|
| Row1 | Y^WR | | Y | Y | Y | | | | | Y |
| Row2 | N^Z~@* | Y | | Y | | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Row3 | YWZ*R | | Y | | Y | Y | | | Y | Y |
</code></pre>
What does the raw source data look like? I'm still struggling to understand and this part of the puzzle only you can see.
</div>

<div>
yes that's it, &nbsp;the table really only has ID and codes, the SQL magic I'm looking for would parse the codes and add the &nbsp;&quot;Has&quot; columns that are needed based on &nbsp;successfully finding codes. 
Test for &quot;A&quot; &nbsp;- found make the column 
Test for &quot;B&quot; &nbsp;- found make the column 
Test for &quot;C&quot; - not found don't make the column 
Test for &quot;X&quot; 
Test for &quot;Y&quot; 
Test for &quot;Z&quot; &nbsp;etc 
I think this is probably not possible, and &nbsp;the columns needed for the output &nbsp;need to be determined at the start of the &nbsp;query execution, but the &nbsp; result I want isn't known until the &nbsp;codes in the entire result set &nbsp;are &nbsp;tested. &nbsp;Maybe a multi step procedure is needed.
</div>

<div>
yeah, that's what I was starting to think would be the only way - testing &nbsp;count(*) &nbsp;not null then dropping. 
Probably overall not a good idea. I think I'll &nbsp;just out put the full set of code columns and let the users delete as needed. 
I will try this out tomorrow though. 
Nice, thanks!
</div>

<div>
&gt;&gt;&quot; the columns needed for the output &nbsp;need to be determined at the start of the &nbsp;query execution&quot; 
 
I believe we started there did we not? That statement is true.
</div>

<div>
@Author - Welcome. 
 
This is a very different and nice requirement :) 
 
Please try and let us know if you face any issues.
</div>

<div>
If it has A in it is that more important than it having B; in other words, is there an importance to the character? If so you could CASE through each row and get a SINGLE column result matching the highest priority. 

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-20-42360490-1">/*search for A, E, I, or U; return highest priority*/
| ID | Codes |PriorityMatch|
| Row1 | Y^BIWCAER |A|
</code></pre>
 
What if the output column was a concatenation of all of the matching codes? If no match, the column cell would be NULL (in this case you could even subtract the NULL results using 
&nbsp;
<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-20-42360490-2">WHERE ConcatListOfMatchingCodes IS NOT NULL
</code></pre>
 Then, you would be dealing with one column this way instead of 
<blockquote>
30 possible columns
</blockquote>
 You could then parse this list if needed (comma separated) or leave it as is as a sorted and clean list for others to read. 
 

<pre><code class="code-1 nolinks" id="code-20-42360490-3">/*search for A, E, I, or U*/
| ID | Codes |ConcatListOfMatchingCodes|
| Row1 | Y^BIWCAER |A,E,I|
</code></pre>
</div>

<div>
Sorry for the multiple edits. Please refresh to view suggestion above.
</div>

<div>
The temp table is best. A column for each works with the case statement, but &nbsp;empty columns. 
Yes, knowing columns before , and &nbsp;varying columns depending on the input is a big part of it. 
&nbsp;I think I'll &nbsp;test the temp table method on some larger &nbsp;result and see how it goes. &nbsp;But 
will probably use the &nbsp;one column &nbsp;for each possible code. consistent column layout will be better for users anyway. 
Thanks &nbsp;to all for your ideas!
</div>

<div>
Thanks to everyone for the ideas.
</div>

<div>
<div class="content wysiwyg-content">
Any way to write a query that will conditionally include a column? 
 
I know that a Case statement can be used to control output, but 
this is a little different. 
 
For example, there is a column that contains some number of &nbsp;1 character codes. 
Let's say: &nbsp; Optionscolumn &nbsp;contains &quot;ABCDEFG&quot; 
 
CASE WHEN Optionscolumn &nbsp;like '%A%' &nbsp;THEN 'yes' else '' &nbsp;END &nbsp;As ContainsA 
CASE WHEN Optionscolumn &nbsp;like '%B%' &nbsp;THEN 'yes' &nbsp;else '' &nbsp;END &nbsp;As ContainsB 
 
That words just fine, but in the case of no value, I want no column at all included. 
So, if &nbsp; Optionscolumn &nbsp;is not like '%A%' &nbsp;then the column &nbsp;&quot;ContainsA&quot; is not in the query results at all. 
 
Reason is that there are over 30 possible values, and I only want to include the columns for 
values found, which would be around 5 or 6. &nbsp;I don't want 25 or so empty columns. 
 
I've looked and tried, can't figure it out. 
 
Since the columns needed would be different on different rows, maybe it's not possible, and 
the only way is to &nbsp;make a temp table and drop &nbsp;any columns that are entirely empty? 
 
Any thoughts? 
Thanks!
</div>
</div>

Any way to write a query that will conditionally include a column?

I know that a Case statement can be used to control output, but 
this is a little different. 

For example, there is a column that contains some number of  1 character codes.
Let's say:   Optionscolumn  contains "ABCDEFG" 

CASE WHEN Optionscolumn  like '%A%'  THEN 'yes' else ''  END  As ContainsA 
CASE WHEN Optionscolumn  like '%B%'  THEN 'yes'  else ''  END  As ContainsB 

That words just fine, but in the case of no value, I want no column at all included.
So, if   Optionscolumn  is not like '%A%'  then the column  "ContainsA" is not in the query results at all.

Reason is that there are over 30 possible values, and I only want to include the columns for 
values found, which would be around 5 or 6.  I don't want 25 or so empty columns.

I've looked and tried, can't figure it out. 

Since the columns needed would be different on different rows, maybe it's not possible, and
the only way is to  make a temp table and drop  any columns that are entirely empty?

Any thoughts?
Thanks!

conditional SQL output

A regular expression ("regex") is a sequence of characters that define a search pattern, mainly for use in pattern matching with strings, or string matching, i.e. "find and replace"-like operations. Regular expression processors are found in several search engines, search and replace dialogs of several word processors and text editors, and in the command lines of text processing utilities, such as sed and AWK. Many programming languages provide regular expression capabilities, some built-in, for example Perl, JavaScript, Ruby, AWK, and Tcl, and others via a standard library, for example .NET languages, Java, Python and C++ (since C++11). Most other languages offer regular expressions via a library.

Regular Expressions

SQL (Structured Query Language) is designed to be used in conjunction with relational database products as of a means of working with sets of data. SQL consists of data definition, data manipulation, and procedural elements. Its scope includes data insert, query, update and delete, schema creation and modification, and data access control.